The Rattigan the Newsletter of the Terence Rattigan Society ISSUE NO
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The Rattigan The Newsletter of The Terence Rattigan Society ISSUE NO. 2 JAN/FEB 2012 Version The Rattigan Society in the Rattigan Set Forty members of the Society and their guests (numbers being restricted by the capacity of the two reception rooms) attended the Christmas Party hosted by founder member Antony Fletcher, the current occupant of K5, Rattigan’s former set (as they are called) in Albany, Piccadilly. Rattigan biographer Geoffrey Wansell (we are incredibly lucky in having two eminent Rattigan biographers amongst our number) gave an address and signed copies of his book. He was also presented with a framed certificate commemorating his appointment as a Vice-President of the Society. It was a heart-warming experience for Rattigan aficionados to occupy Our President flanked by Vice-President Geoffrey Wansell (left) and host Antony Fletcher (right) in K5, Albany the same space for an hour or two that the commissioned by the BBC, when they still did such great man had things, from a major playwright, when there were such occupied in 1943-1945, things, with an all star cast and not a police uniform in when he was working sight. Director Philip Franks announced the piece as on While the Sun having had “minutes of rehearsal” but I think he had his Geoffrey Wansell receives his VP Shines and Love in tongue in his cheek. He should have done – this was a certificate from the Chairman Idleness — originally quite excellent presentation that speaks as powerfully to entitled Less Than Kind (see enclosed flyer) - as well as us now as when it was written, probably more so since the screenplay developed from his stage play Flare Path, the age of deference is dead. eventually called The Way to the Stars. The lead performances were exceptional, with Dominic Rowan bringing more than a smidgeon of Rehearsed Rattigan readings pathos to the part of talk show interviewer David Mann Society member Roger Mills writes... and David Westhead as the Cabinet Minister Sir Stanley Johnston lingering in the memory for a long time. But in truth you could have plonked the whole cast in front At Chichester last summer there was an excellent series of a Radio Drama Department microphone and of rehearsed readings of Rattigan plays. I was broadcast it live, it was that good. particularly struck by the quite stunning presentation Continued on back page of Heart to Heart. Here was a one-off play, INTRODUCING OUR VICE-PRESIDENT, P2 CIRCLES AND TANGENTS BY MICHAEL DARLOW, PP3&4 REHEARSED RATTIGAN READINGS, PP1&4 DATES FOR YOUR DIARY, P4 1 The Terence Rattigan Society President: Princess George Galitzine Vice-Presidents: Michael Darlow, Greta Scacchi, David Suchet CBE, Geoffrey Wansell Committee: Chairman Barbara Longford ([email protected]) Membership Secretary Diana Scotney ([email protected]) Treasurer Andrew Kenyon ([email protected]) Editor Giles Cole ([email protected]) Webmaster Stephen Bradley ([email protected]) Theatre Liaison Michael Wheatley-Ward ([email protected]) Drama School Liaison Elizabeth Donnelly ([email protected]) Secretary & RAF Liaison Gp. Capt. Clive Montellier FCIPD, FCMI, RAF ([email protected]) consistent in her depiction of the great man. She allowed Introducing for changes of fashion – such as replacing a pocket watch ...our Vice-President David Suchet CBE with a wristwatch – but everything else remained perfectly in place. Precisely like his performance. It is, of course, hardly necessary to ‘introduce’ David It is sometimes forgotten that David began his career Suchet to anyone, let alone members of The Terence as a classical actor with the RSC. It was an invaluable Rattigan Society. Apart from his many appearances on experience – “a long apprenticeship”, he says, with the stage, television and film, he is also distinguished in our emphasis on the word ‘long’. He was one of the last eyes as the unveiler of the plaque outside Rattigan’s actors to be taken on as a ‘spear-carrier’ and who ended birthplace, 100 Cornwall Gardens, in 2005. As you will up a dozen or so years later playing some of the most not readily have forgotten, that is where we held our famous Shakespearean roles. He is particularly proud of inaugural Society event (as reported in the last, and first, his Iago (to Ben Kingsley’s Othello), his Bolingbroke, issue of this newsletter). Caliban and the Fool in King Lear. David doesn’t consider himself to be natural casting In April he is embarking on a for most of the great Rattigan roles, and has only played West End production of Long one part in a Rattigan play – Gregor Antonescu in Man Day’s Journey Into Night. He has and Boy. That he made a great success of it is well an affinity with American roles, known: what is not quite so well-known is that he having also appeared, turned it down three times before, the first time being in unforgettably, in All My Sons, 1994, when he considered himself to be too young, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? not ready to delve into a character so irredeemable. In and Oleanna. And awards? Surely Rattigan’s own words, he had “written the devil” and it he must have a shelf-ful of takes a brave performer to take on such a part. Rex Oliviers by now? In fact, he holds Harrison famously declined it in the original production the record for having the most because he was too concerned with being popular. nominations without actually winning one. However, he David Suchet had no such foibles and his performance has won a Variety Club award for Oleanna, a Critics was mesmerising. Circle award for Virginia Woolf, and a Royal Television It was another of our Vice-Presidents, Geoffrey Society award for his performance as Augustus Melmotte Wansell, who convinced him finally to take on the role. in The Way We Live Now. Geoffrey reopened his eyes to Rattigan as a dramatist, He was a memorable Jaggers in Great Expectations and it has been a passion of David’s since then to over Christmas. Look out, also, for his Duke of York in retrieve Man and Boy as a play of substance. Richard II for the BBC, being screened during the Poirot is of course his most recognisable screen Olympics, and the film Effie, written by Emma character, and he is filming the last five stories this Thompson, in which he plays John Ruskin’s father. autumn, which will complete a tally of 70. He compiled There’s also a documentary coming up about the life and copious notes from over 60 of the Poirot books and journeys of St Paul, which he is presenting. Perhaps discovered that Agatha Christie was amazingly Poirot can find a mystery to unravel there too. 2 Quoted from a London stage, Circles and Tangents And he did not mind, nay, was rather proud by our Vice-President Michael Darlow That there was not a profound page. His talk was easy, and clever, and bound By no other convention than this:- An exhibition at Dorset County Museum in Dorchester That it should never discuss a man’s soul will have been of interest to Rattigan fans. Cranborne: Nor a subject for laughter miss. Art in the Shadow of the Chase included works by Two weeks later Rankin went to Cornwall intending to Peggy Rankin, elder sister of David Rankin, whose write a play called The Suicide about a middle-aged man death, aged twenty, in the summer of 1938 had a major who, having failed to live up to the ideals of his youth, impact on the writing of After The Dance. kills himself. Upon arrival Rankin, a strong swimmer, David, the son of a clergyman’s daughter, went up to went for a swim in the sea. He never returned. Two Oxford in autumn 1937 where he started keeping a days later his body was washed ashore. The coroner’s diary in which he charted his moral struggles, anguish verdict was accidental drowning. But to this day over his religious faith and awakening homosexual members of his family believe that his death was feelings. He joined OUDS, The Oxford University suicide. Dramatic Society, and it was probably at an OUDS event When Rattigan met Rankin he was suffering severe late in 1937 that he first met Rattigan. Rattigan had writer’s block following the unexpected success of been a member of OUDS and regularly returned to French Without Tears. During the months of their attend its events. friendship Rattigan worked with Anthony Goldschmidt Rankin appears to have been among on the satirical farce about Hitler, Mussolini and the the first in the succession of good Chamberlain government’s policy of appeasement, looking, slightly below average Follow My Leader, and probably read parts of it to height young men to whom Rattigan Rankin. The play was completed around the time of would repeatedly be attracted Rankin’s death, but was immediately banned by the throughout his life. Lord Chamberlain as “not in the nation’s interest” – it On 22nd March 1938, his might offend Hitler! But at the same time Rattigan had twentieth birthday, Rankin records also been struggling with a much more serious play, his disappointment at hearing After the Dance. This play was not finally completed nothing from Rattigan and speculates until some weeks after Rankin’s death. that he “may have decided that my Continued on back page good looks are accompanied with too much intellect.” However, the following day he receives a telegram from Rattigan inviting him to stay for a weekend and enthusiastically accepts, adding in his diary: “Mummy was rather worried, to such an extent that I wondered whether she guessed his intentions.