Written in the early fifties when Rattigan was at the height of his powers, The Deep Blue Sea is a powerful account of lives blighted by love - or the lack of it.
The play opens with the failed suicide of Hester Collyer (Peggy Ashcroft in the first production), who has deserted her husband for the raffish charms of an ex-fighter pilot.
Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea was first performed at the Duchess Theatre in the West End in March 1952.
This edition includes an authoritative introduction, biographical sketch and chronology.
'Few dramatists of this century have written with more understanding of the human heart than Terence Rattigan'Michael Billington
Written in the early fifties when Rattigan was at the height of his powers, The Deep Blue Sea is a powerful account of lives blighted by love - or the lack of it.
The play opens with the failed suicide of Hester Collyer, who has deserted her husband for the raffish charms of an ex-fighter pilot.
This edition includes an authoritative introduction by Dan Rebellato, biographical sketch and chronology.
The Deep Blue Sea premiered at the Duchess Theatre, London, in March 1952. It has twice been adapted for film: in 1955, starring Vivien Leigh, and in 2011, starring Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale.
'a masterpiece... a play that cuts at the heart' Telegraph
'probably his greatest play... Ibsenesque' Financial Times
'masterly... a perennially moving play' Guardian
'excellent... particularly moving... interlaced with moments of humour and black comedy' WhatsOnStage
