Independent Theatre. Star Theatres. 29 Nov 2024
Few things in this life are as deeply satisfying as a really good, solid piece of old-school theatre. Or so think many of us. Rob Croser has been delivering this entity in a state of high finesse for years - and at affordable ticket prices. We don’t know how lucky we are.
He’s done it yet again, with designer David Roach ingeniously transforming the old Star Theatre into a very comfortable and believable London flat of the 1950s. Walking in onto the set, which is at the foot of the front row in the Star, took this 60s London flatter right back to that life, replete with its period gas fire and coin-hungry gas meter. Both set and costumes of The Deep Blue Sea are absolutely spot-on.
Hester Collyer has come upon hard times in post-war London, reduced to digs in a converted Victorian mansion the like of which, by rights, would have been hers had she not forsaken her knighted husband and run off with a dashing toy boy. Her mistakes are coming home to roost in this Terrence Rattigan portrait of broken hearts and wasted opportunities. Not even the kind people around her can extinguish her stubborn victimhood.
Through one long day, post unsuccessful cri de cœur with aspirin and gas, she wafts and wallows, dishevelled and in dressing gown, beyond hope or reason.
Hester Collyer is one of theatre’s great melodramatic roles for a seasoned actress, renowned from performances by Googie Withers and Peggy Ashcroft. With his general directorial impeccability, Rob Croser has cast the eminently capable Lyn Wilson in this emotionally exhausting lead role. In thrall, the audience follows the desperate vales, trenches and hysterical highs of her committed characterisation.
There is, of course, a human commonality to her plight and, although one may not like the spoiled hobby-artist, Hester Collyer, one understands her mindset.
She has created a love triangle. Her husband, Sir William, the judge, is still desperately in love with her, but not she with him. She loves the fun-loving drunkard, Freddie Page, a relic of WWII derring do-air combat, now a failed test pilot.
On this crucial day after her birthday, the emotional gambles of her past converge. Everyone comes knocking.
Handsome Freddie is a lovely posh cad, quite perfectly embodied by Patrick Marlin while Chris Bleby stands aloft, fairly literally, as the cuckolded noble husband. His is a beautifully expressive performance and one’s heart breaks for his heartbreak.
The supporting cast uniformly delivers strong and credible performances. Rose Vallen is salt of the earth and commonsense heart of gold as Hester’s landlady and cleaner while Ryan Kennealy and Sophie Livingston-Pearce turn in very entertaining cameos as busybody fellow tenants. Tim Everson very neatly encapsulates the spirit of slightly upper crust decadence in the atmosphere of postwar London hedonism as Freddie’s old school bestie.
Finally, there is Mr Miller, the sad old disgraced German doctor who also has digs at this Ladbroke Gardens address. Mrs Elton, the landlady, knows his and everyone else’s secrets. She almost keeps them. She and Mr Miller provide both physical and philosophical succour for poor Hester, with some of the best lines if this finely wrought play.
Yes, The Deep Blue Sea is very much a period piece. It is precisely dated, and this is part of its significance in the canon of English theatre. The 1950s was an era of damaged people in a bomb-scarred city, of a society trying to put the salve of stiff upper lip upon its war traumas.
While this wonderful Croser production with its splendid Roach set is attracting an audience of older citizenry still with memories of those not so long gone times, it is really a work to which Gen X, Y and Z should be exposed.
While the characters arrayed in the play are of their era, their stereotypes and their places in the cut and thrust of the human predicament are reborn through every generation.
This is a five-star piece of theatre, eminently worth your valuable time.
Samela Harris
When: 29 Nov to 7 Dec
Where: Star Theatres
Bookings: trybooking.com
