Flare Path

By: Terence Rattigan

Director: Klaas Van Weringh

Genre: Drama

Running: Oct. 27 – Nov. 14, 2015

Matinee: Nov. 8

At the Falcon Hotel on the Lincolnshire coast, brave men from a nearby RAF airbase are on furlough for a much-anticipated weekend with their wives. Unfortunately, Lt. Teddy Graham’s wife Patricia has not arrived unencumbered. Peter Kyle, a Hollywood film star and Patricia’s rekindled flame is also a guest.

“…A three-handkerchief weepie that somehow manages to be both profoundly moving and wonderfully funny.” – The Telegraph
The Cast (in order of appearance)

Countess Skriczevinsky (Doris)…………………..  Zoë Tupling
Peter Kyle…………………………………………………  Sterling Lynch
Mrs. Oakes………………………………………………   Janet Rice
Sergeant Miller (Dusty)…………………………….   Allan Ross
Percy………………………………………………………   Jeff Clement
Count Skriczevinsky (Johnny)…………………..   Andrew Johnson
Flight-Lieutenant Graham (Teddy)……………   Jesse Lalonde
Patricia Graham……………………………………….   Laura Hall
Mrs. Miller (Maudie)………………………………..    Lindsey Hawley
Squadron-Leader Swanson (Gloria)…………….  Sam Hanson
Corporal “Wiggy” Jones & BBC announcer …. David McCallum

Sir Terrence Rattigan was born June 10^th, 1911, in South Kensington, London. Rattigan attended the Harrow School for boys where he was part of the Officer Training Corps and Harrow First XI cricket team. The charismatic Rattigan was a champion of both sides, and even managed to organise a mutiny of the Officer Training Corps, causing Harrow’s rival school to offer assistance to Rattigan’s chagrined head master. In the years that followed Rattigan’s education, he took on the public voice of playwriting. Similar to most of the world, Rattigan’s work was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Proud to take up the gauntlet to defend his country, Rattigan served in the Royal Air Force as a tail gunner. His experiences in World War II helped inspire Flare Path. After the war, Rattigan alternated between comedies and dramas, establishing himself as a major playwright. The most famous of his plays were: The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, The Deep Blue Sea, and Separate Tables. Due to his sexual orientation, Rattigan saw himself as an outsider of society and he reflected upon this through his work. Rattigan once remarked, “A playwright must be his own audience. A novelist may lose his readers for a few pages; a playwright never dares lose his audience for a minute.” Through reading Sir Terrence Rattigan’s body of work, it is apparent that Rattigan wrote to speak to the struggles present within him. The courageous manner in which he did so, brought society to lend their attention to such taboo subjects as: sexual frustration, sexual orientation and adultery. Rattigan passed away in Hamilton, Bermuda in 1977, at the age of 66. But not before he became one of England’s most popular and courageous mid-twentieth century playwrights.