Tag: Terence Rattigan

A Weekend Including The Arrival of Nobby, Cause Célèbre by Terence Rattigan, Lyric Hammersmith, A Drive Out To Mainelli-land On The Sunday & Finally Unwanted News On Our Return Home, 7 & 8 February 1998

A memorable weekend in all sorts of ways, this one – good and bad.

The weekend started with me collecting Nobby, my souped-down Honda CRX. I don’t often buy cars, so this was a big day.

Janie, with Nobby, at his last resting place, 16 years later

Then Cause Célèbre at the Lyric, which I simply rated “good”.

It didn’t get much press. Here’s a snippet from the Sunday Telegraph:

22 Feb 1998, Sun Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com Cause Célèbre 2 of 2 Sunday TelegraphCause Célèbre 2 of 2 Sunday Telegraph 22 Feb 1998, Sun Sunday Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

I’ve never been a huge fan of Rattigan and I recall that this play/production didn’t really change my view.

On the Sunday, somewhat on a whim I seem to recall, the Mainelli’s invited us over to their place as they had several people already scheduled to visit and they wanted a butchers at my new motor.

My abiding memory of that visit was how cold it was that day, but the assembled throng (especially Rupert Stubbs) insisted that we remove the roof of the car and drive off demonstrating the open-toppedness of the thing.

Dall-e thinks we looked a bit like this

When we got home, while we were eating a camembert salad supper, Janie’s twin sister Philippa called to let us know the bad news that she had been diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. That news dampened our mood considerably and turned our world upside down for quite a while.

Playbill: The Browning Version & Harlequinade by Terence Rattigan, The Royalty Theatre, 26 April 1988

The Browning Version is one of Rattigan’s best known plays, originally performed, as it was in the production we saw, jointly with Harlequinade. This Wikipedia piece explains all that background and has good links.

I have little recollection of this particular production and midweek evening at the theatre with Bobbie.

Starry cast, we saw, with Paul Eddington and Dorothy Tutin as the Crocker-Harris couple in The Browning Version. The same cast and crew performed/produced both plays.

Here is the Theatricalia entry for this production of The Browning Version.

Below is Steve Goldman’s Guardian review:

Steve Goldman on RattiganSteve Goldman on Rattigan Mon, Mar 21, 1988 – 32 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

Below is Kate Kellaway’s Observer review:

Kate Kellaway on RattiganKate Kellaway on Rattigan Sun, Mar 20, 1988 – 40 · The Observer (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com

I think I concluded that Rattigan isn’t really my thing when I saw these plays. It all seemed rather old-fashioned in style, although I do also recall that there were interesting themes and the plays were well written.

Bobbie might remember more…but I doubt it.