But before I get on to the writing here, I do want to talk about some of those production values. A couple of weeks after watching this I went to an RSC Open Day event which looked at Lights, Sound and Action and one of the comments that the Lighting representative made was that if the first thing you comment on is the lighting, there’s probably something wrong with the production – “Nobody comes out humming the lighting”. Whilst I agree with the point being made, it is a point I find myself frequently breaking – I’m often blown away by the lighting, for example, in the Swan Theatre and Cause Célèbre was definitely a case where the first thing I found myself raving about was the lighting in a way that certainly wasn’t to the detriment of the rest of the production.
Designed by Bruno Poet, who caught attention for his impressive lighting display for Frankenstein at the National Theatre, his work here is more subtle but just as impressive. As well as aiding with the surprisingly smooth transitions between the large number of scene changes (some sets were simply delineated by the way light spilled across the stage), it was also doing a huge amount in creating the era and atmosphere of the period and in capturing and provoking emotions in the scenes. Small moments like the sudden warming of the colour as Alma first appears are almost unnoticeable on a conscious level but very effective. Whilst the beauty of the lighting as Christopher and his father walked out of the smoky distance, so evocative of trains and classic movies, would have alone secured the design top place in my Interval Awards.
I was similarly impressed by the set. The play itself was originally designed for the radio – somewhat explaining the large number of short intercut scenes and overlapping – it’s a challenge that Thea Sharrock has more than risen to and the stage design by Hildegard Bechtler, used a beautiful assortment of overlapping and split levels to allow scenes to flow into each other almost effortlessly.
The beauty of the production was well matched by an array of powerful performances. With Niahm Cusack and Anne-Marie Duff as the leads particularly standing out. Alma is a wonderful part and Duff caught the warm, impetuous, mesmerising quality of the role perfectly. I also adored how the two characters acted as foils for each other – each illuminating and redefining the other – partly created through the performances though the concept is clearly also at the beating heart of the writing.
And really this was truly another victory for Rattigan’s beautiful writing – I am utterly awed by how he balances the two emotional stories. He uses each as a counterbalance to the other – so that we can’t completely understand each story or each character’s relationships without also understanding its reverse. The obvious example, of course, is that the truth of Alma’s relationship with George, is only truly understandable by comparison with Edith’s relationship with Christopher. It reminded me of the use of the Duchess and Johnny’s relationship and war background to alter our perception of the Teddy, Peter and Patricia love triangle in Flare Path.
Although deep down I can’t help but feel that Flare Path is the stronger of the two plays and productions (I think that Cause Célèbre suffers, for example, from our familiarity now with court procedurals robbing it of some of its power) – it’s another wonderful addition to the current Rattigan celebrations.
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