Review: The Deep Blue Sea (Theatre Royal Haymarket)

Review by Dan Sinclair

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Terrence Rattigan is one of the greats of British Theatre, a name often smudged out by the era of Angry Young (Misogynistic?) Men who blew his plays out of fashion in the 1960s. He wrote comedies, dramas, feel-good wartime puff pieces; his legacy is up there with Noël Coward’s, and The Deep Blue Sea is his most autobiographical, and many would argue, his finest. A sensitive exploration of suicide, loneliness and love, it originally stems from Rattigan’s own life, having written the play after the discovery that Kenneth Morgan, a young actor with whom he had a relationship with had taken his own life, in front of the gas stove.

The play opens with a body discovered dead in front of the gas fire. It is Hester Collyer. Her landlady, Mrs Elton and the upstairs neighbours, Philip and Ann Welch, smell the gas and decide to barge into flat 3, 27 Weybridge Villas, Ladbroke Grove. Hester, unconscious, is brought back from the brink of death, only surviving having forgotten to pop a shilling in the gas meter. Currently going through a divorce with her husband, Judge William Collyer, she has been living with the dashing ex-Spitfire pilot, Freddie Page, a man whom she loves, but does not have the ability to love her back. She writes him a suicide note, and after finding it in her dressing gown, their fragile romance turns to dust. Striking up an unlikely friendship with the struck-off doctor upstairs, Mr Miller, Hester must decide between living without love or not living at all.

At the core of this play is Tamsin Greig’s portrayal of Hester, a role (unhelpfully so, I’m sure for the actor) held up as one of the greatest female parts in theatre. It is a mammoth part, one that takes an emotional battering over the course of the play, and Greig gives a cracking performance. Her Hester conceals herself with smiles and humour, laughing at nothing just to fill the heavy air around her. Her performance and Posner’s direction prove that the play still has the power to shock; gasps rattled around the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Greig takes Hester to the brink of suicide repeatedly, she seems to be dancing on the tightrope from the moment the play begins. Tamsin Greig proves herself again to be an endlessly malleable actor. But her portrayal, for me, was missing a sense of well… nothingness, of loss.

In Lindsay Posner’s staging of The Deep Blue Sea, there is a tidal drift towards comedy, deciding to lean into the kitschy style of Rattigan, one that went out of fashion with the 1960s. Foppish lines, people coming through doors at exactly the wrong/right time, glasses of scotch and tiptip tally-ho! Many moments are skewed towards this sillier interpretation, no doubt utilising the well-honed comedic talent of Tamsin Greig, but this is not always to the betterment of the production.

Many devastating moments were undercut by a gag, a wink to the audience, something to get a laugh. Notably, a moment in the second half has the lonely housewife, Ann Welch (Lisa Ambalavanar), complain about not wanting to be alone, to which Hester slowly closes the door on her remarking, ‘Oh, I know, nightmare’ (but in Terrence Rattigan speak). The play constantly stole away chances to deepen Greig’s performance and embrace the sadness of Hester, in favour of chasing a laugh.

The highlight of the night is Finbar Lynch as Kurt Miller, the struck-off Doctor who lives above. If Hester is caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea, then Miller is her angel. Dismissed and jailed for his homosexuality (never explicitly stated in the play, but we know), Mr Miller finds a friend in Hester, and Hester finds a saviour. Finbar Lynch’s portrayal of this man is fantastically nuanced; he captures his wit, warmth, and cruelty, and every line reveals another layer. Lynch’s performance reminded me that the disgraced homosexual doctor may be one of Rattigan’s finest creations. Even if a scene with Mrs Elton, when discussing the persecution of Miller as the type of gentleman who ‘does the sort of thing people don’t forgive very easily’, was played for laughs.

The Ustinov Studio in Bath is developing a reputation for being a West End transfer production line, and with the immense success of last year's Machinal at the Old Vic, it’s doing a fine job. But with Machinal and again with this transfer of The Deep Blue Sea, there is something about the design and the scale of shows from the Ustinov Studio, they seem to struggle filling the space of these much larger West End venues. The period faithful and realistic set from Peter McKintosh, whilst beautiful, leaves you staring at a huge empty gap of darkness looming above the set. It comes with the territory, transferring a successful studio show to a big, stonking proscenium arch.

When the play really get’s cooking, however, you are completely sucked in. Hester and Miller sit together on the floor, both at their wits' end. The dialogue is devastating, and the performances are beautiful. I could’ve watched those two perform that scene for 2 hours. Across the board, performances were strong, with Hadley Fraser’s Freddie and Preston Nyman’s nosey neighbour Philip only occasionally falling on the wrong side of the Casablanca campiness that was found in this production.

It’s a solid revival of one of the most touching plays from the era, but at times it feels like a historical re-enactment, a vision of what it must’ve been like to see this play back in 1952 with its drawing-room style set and reluctant use of tech. But it’s not trying to do anything crazy, it’s trying to do The Deep Blue Sea as The Deep Blue Sea, but can you do that in a way which remains faithful to the original, but elevates the material to whole new levels, takes it seriously, breaks your heart, breaks the budget on the set design and adds a bit of sauce to the mix? 2016 and Helen McCroy would say, yes.

The Deep Blue Sea is playing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until 21st June.

Tickets from: https://trh.co.uk/whatson/the-deep-blue-sea/ 

Photos by Manuel Harlan