Terence Rattigan's Flare Path is currently showing at the Royal Haymarket. The cast is well chose n and performances are excellent. I'm interested in the messages hidden in the play especially when looked at from our current perspective. It's from a time when the world was much more black and white and gender roles were clearly defined.
As per my subtitle I thought the message of the play was clear, that woman should support their husbands through difficult times and stand by their side. Yes Rattigan was gay and the sergeant master nicknamed Gloria who stays behind with the woman to wait for the returning soldiers is our token gay and maybe he plays that bridge between the straight woman and their husbands, the one who has access to both worlds.
Men are portrayed as emotionally vulnerable and need of care and attention during the time of the war.
The famous actor Peter played by James Purefoy enters the stage as the perfect dream man fresh from Hollywood, but as the play develops he systematically becomes the tragic figure. The one who is missing out from the here and now. His masks falls and he confesses that he is desperate and leaves the hotel alone. Again the message is clear, frivolous fun lifestyles end in tears.
The play portrays a society with a greater sense of cohesion and focus. The characters have made peace with the fact that they had to adopt their lives to a new situation.
Patricia played by Sienna Miller is dressed like the perfect housewife as portrayed in the typical post war advertisements and she is torn between doing what is right and what feels right. Good triumphs over evil.
One can't help but think of the idea of the big society that's being flaunted around by the new government.
People should become more directly active in solving societies problems and depend less on handouts and others to resolve their issues for them.
The only problem with that equation is that , the second world war was being fought against a known enemy from outside. The current mess we're all in was created within this society.
http://www.london-theatreland.co.uk/theatres/theatre-royal-haymarket/flare-path-cast-creative.php
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