Theatre review: The Deep Blue Sea

The Deep Blue Sea isn't the easiest watch in the Terence Rattigan canon but it's considered among his great works; that, and Tamsin Greig in the lead role, were reasons enough to revisit a play steeped in despair and redemption in its first return to London since the late Helen McCrory led it at the National a decade ago. The play opens with a suicide attempt: Hester (Greig) is found on the floor of her room in a dilapidated boarding house, unconscious but still alive next to the hissing gas fire. In an early example of how the play juggles the banal with the profound, her life was saved when the gas ran out because she forgot to top up the meter. Landlady Mrs Elton (Selina Cadell) and neighbours Mr & Mrs Welch (Preston Nyman and Lisa Ambalavanar) will get her help, but their meddling will also bring everyone from Hester's complicated life right back to her.

Married to the older judge Bill (Nicholas Farrell,) Hester left him a year ago for former pilot Freddie (Hadley Fraser,) but Bill hasn't yet been willing to grant her a divorce. With his glory days in the Second World War behind him, Freddie has turned to alcohol, and the couple's fortunes have suffered accordingly.

Freddie has been leaving Hester alone in the flat while he supposedly goes out to play golf and make new work contacts, and his forgetting her birthday was the last straw in her confronting how wide the gap is between the way they feel about each other. Lindsay Posner's production is a very traditional one that feels like it probably isn't that different from how the play might have been presented in the 1950s, especially in Peter McKintosh's grimly shadowy design of brown, peeling wallpaper.

But if he doesn't provide new fireworks there are elements that still absolutely pop in the production, not least of all Greig's powerful performance. It's the central character's despair that makes this a play not for the faint-hearted, but Greig's ability with comedy also adds depth. Hester's self-deprecating little comments help the audience empathise as much if not more so than her dark night of the soul, and add real humanity: Hester finally laughing for the first time in the play is a precursor to tears, but it still feels like a watershed moment of her starting to process her emotions.

The other thing that stands out is how accomplished the play itself is. Turner's old-fashioned production does highlight the way Rattigan wasn't reinventing the wheel, famously leading to him being cast into the theatrical wilderness. But it also shows how much he was doing with that early 20th century form that led to his comprehensive reappraisal.

So Freddie's dangerous narcissism is seen in his reaction to Hester's suicide attempt, which he keeps seeing as an attempt to hurt his reputation. His leaving her a shilling for the meter gets the kind of gasp that shows an audience really paying attention. It's the tiny moments that both hit hardest - Hester abruptly telling Freddie goodbye is her regaining control in a way that feels like a huge plot twist.

There's also the extraordinary character of Mr Miller (Finbar Lynch,) the struck off doctor who treats Hester in his spare time. The cadaverous, ambiguous figure who's assumed to have an ulterior motive is an unlikely one to play the role of angel of hope, so it's hugely satisfying to see his tough-love approach working. The Deep Blue Sea is a play whose running time you sometimes feel acutely, but its more laborious moments are worth it for the picture they build up and the revelations, and ultimate catharsis they lead to.

The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan is booking until the 21st of June at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.