Separate Tables

by Terence Rattigan, Dan Rebellato (Introduction)

Separate Tables consists of two linked one-acts set in a rundown residential hotel in Bournemouth.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Fiction, British Literature, 20th Century, Theatre, Classics

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1956

About the author

Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan, CBE was a British dramatist. He was one of England's most popular mid twentieth century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background. He is known for such works as The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952) and Separate Tables (1954), among many others.

A troubled homosexual, who saw himself as an outsider, his plays "confronted issues of sexual frustration, failed relationships and adultery", and a world of repression and reticence.

Reviews

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

ENGLISH: For the sixth and seventh time, I have watched this play in Spanish in the RTVE archive. As with the original English version I saw last, they are divided into two acts with different plots, but in these versions different actors played the main roles. One of the versions I've watched now is black&white and separates the acts as the author did. The other is in color and mixes them, as in the film. Both are good, although they made some changes.
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This is the fifth time I have watched this play by Rattigan in its original form (different from the film adaptation), where the same couple of actors make the four main roles in both acts of the play.

The film has a spectacular cast (Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr and David Niven), but by mixing the two acts in one and dividing the roles, it loses somewhat.

ESPAÑOL: He visto esta obra por sexta y séptima vez, en español, en el archivo de RTVE. Igual que la versión original en inglés que vi otras veces, se dividen en dos actos con tramas diferentes, pero en estas versiones los actores principales son distintos. Una de las que he visto ahora está en blanco y negro y separa los dos actos como lo hizo el autor. La otra es en color, y los mezcla, como la película. Ambas son buenas, aunque hacen cambios.
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Esta es la quinta vez que veo esta obra de Rattigan en su forma original (frente a la adaptación cinematográfica), en la que la misma pareja de actores hace los cuatro papeles principales en los dos actos de la obra.

La película tiene un elenco espectacular (Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr y David Niven), pero al mezclar los dos actos en uno y dividir los roles, pierde algo.

[Parisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

موضوع غیر جذاب، سیر داستانی ضعیف، پایان افتضاح

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

JANUARY


17. by Terence Rattigan

Finish date: 28 January 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A
Review:

Good news: Setting: The guests gather for a life-changing night at the Beauregard Hotel in
...Bournemouth, an English seaside resort town. We look at the lives of several residents. Guests who have their meals at Separate Tables. We see this all the time...people do not connect.

Good news: This is an absolutely classic English play! Written 1950's Rattigan's play develops familiar themes of loneliness, humiliation and the self appointed moral jurors in the private hotel. Rattigan draws on his own world. He dissects the known realities of the upper-middle-class. Separate Tables is touching, subtle and proof how ...small minds (Lady Railton-Bell) can problematise the unproblematic

Personal: Reading tip: try to put faces on the characters before reading. I used the actors/actresses in the 1958 movie version of the play: Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr, David Niven and Burt Lancaster. Niven won Best Actor Oscar 1959 for his staring role in the movie.
#MustRead...it takes about an hour of your reading time!

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rattigan is very clever in delivering exposition. In both plays, he does it by means of the press; in the first, he imagines what the papers would say about a particular character if he were to re-enter public life. This gives us all the background we need to understand the central conflict. In the second play, a news story exposes the secret of one of the characters, and this forms the basis for his ostracization by the others. It's subtle and well executed.

[Neal Dench · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning: this review contains spoilers.

I'm currently rehearsing this play for a production, so I think I can count as having read this book ;-)

Terence Rattigan (and I'm not the first person to have said this) is enjoying a bit of a renaissance at the moment, and quite rightly so, in my opinion. Historically, Rattigan's fame was somewhat undermined by the "new boys" of 50s drama: the Osbournes, the Pinters, the Millers, and their ilk. As a result, Rattigan was seen as rather old-school: to be classified with older, more traditional playwrights such as Noel Coward. Thankfully, the arts community now tacitly admits that this was a mistake, that there was far more to Rattigan's genius than has been previously admitted, and hence we find Rattigan playing to audiences the country over.

Rattigan was, perhaps, the first playwright to seriously address many of the unmentionable social problems of the day - problems which are still just as relevant today. Themes such as suicide, depression, homosexuality, and politics litter his plays, but each is presented in such a subtle, well-crafted way that Rattigan's plays seem neither drab nor depressing. The new boys of post-war drama can crawl back into their holes: Rattigan did it sooner, and better.

And so to Separate Tables, perhaps his most famous piece. Comprising two connected one act plays, both set in the same Bournemouth hotel, and set 18 months apart, we see in these plays life laid bare, from the mundane to the extreme. Some of the characters appear in both plays, while others appear in just the one. All of them are the products of the mind of someone who can observe human behaviour in its minutest detail.

The first play, "Table By The Window", tells the story of John Malcolm, journalist, soak, wife-beater and has-been politician, and his poisonous love affair with his ex-wife, model Anne Shankland. Now there is a complicated relationship! The scenes with John and Anne together are particularly beautifully written and well-observed (Anne's reactions to John's somewhat idealistic rants are spot on), but John's relationship with Pat Cooper, the hotel manageress, is also poignant. Her resignation to her situation with John is a wonderful contrast to John and Anne's eventual (and inevitably doomed) decision.

The second play, "Table Number Seven" tells the story of the fall from grace of another hotel regular, Major Pollock. Rattigan actually wrote two versions of this play. In the earliest, and least well known, Pollock is arrested for trying to proposition men at night on the local pier. However, Rattigan himself felt that this would be too controversial for the staid old 1950s audiences, and so published a somewhat tamer version in which Pollock tries to feel the knees of women in the local cinema. Time marches on, however, and while neither seem particularly controversial nowadays, the "cinema" version does seem quite tame.

In "Table Number Seven", the focus is on the relationship between Pollock (who, incidentally is not a Major at all) and Sybil, the painfully introverted daughter of another of the regular guests, Mrs Railton-Bell. The awkward relationship that these two misfits have struck up is rocked to its foundations by the revelations of the Majors actions, and the scenes between the two of them, and, once again between Pat Cooper and the Major are beautifully observed. Sybil's eventual rebellion (such as it is) against her dominating mother brings a sigh of relief from the audience.

Traditionally, the parts of John Malcolm and Major Pollock are played by the same actor, as are the parts of Anne Shankland and Sybil. The contrasts between the characters in each play demand the talents of accomplished actors (and in really good productions, the audience may well be unaware of any double casting). However, it's by no means a requirement for a good production of the play. In our production, we're doing a bit of both.

Separate Tables is classic English drama, and rightly so. It's fascinating reading, but like most plays, even better viewing.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I much prefer the second of the two plays, Table Number Seven. I relate more to awkward people.

[Vishy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing the Terence Rattigan reading adventures 😊 Today I decided to read his play 'Separate Tables'.

'Separate Tables' is a collection of two one-act plays, 'Table by the Window' and 'Table Number Seven'. The setting is a residential hotel, a hotel with mostly long-time residents, many of them retired. Occasionally a new guest arrives who stays for a short period of time. Both the stories happen in this residential hotel. Most of the characters in the two plays are the same, but the focus is different in the two stories. This can probably be considered as two episodes happening in the same hotel. In the first play, 'Table by the Window', a new woman arrives to stay in the hotel. But after a while, it appears that she knows one of the men who is already there, and they seem to know each other in an intimate way. What happened in their past, and how this story evolves in the future is told in the rest of the play. In the second play, 'Table Number Seven', a news comes in the paper with surprising revelations about one of the hotel residents. The earthquake this causes and what happens after that forms rest of the story.

I enjoyed reading 'Separate Tables'. I didn't love it as much as my three favourite Rattigans, but I did like it. It made me think of Elizabeth Taylor's novel, 'Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont', where the story happens in a residential hotel. The stories are very different, of course. The lady who manages the residential hotel, Miss Cooper, comes in both the plays, and she is one of my favourite characters in the book. She speaks one of my favourite lines too. We can call 'Table by the Window' a kind of a love story, but a complicated one though. There is even a love triangle there. 'Table Number Seven' is very different. Will come back to it in a moment. The ending of 'Table Number Seven' was fascinating. In the last scene there was pindrop silence, and tension in the air, and the way the gentle people dismantle the bully was beautiful. Spectacular ending.

Now, more about 'Table Number Seven'. Terence Rattigan was gay. During his time though, it was not possible to put a gay character in a play. The government wouldn't allow the play to be staged, if someone did that. So there was always speculation that he tried to sneak in scenes in a play which would make sense to a gay person, but which would be heavily masked so that it can pass the censor's test. Sometimes people analyzed his plays to find those scenes. We don't know whether this is true or not. But with respect to 'Table Number Seven', a draft of the script was discovered later, in which the main character is gay and that is the central theme of the story. Rattigan appears to have made a second version of the play with this change, but no one knew about this version for many years. This edition has that second version too. With the main character becoming gay, the play becomes more powerful and the hostility of the other characters towards this main character makes more sense. It actually made the play better. It was like the difference between the play and movie versions of Tennessee Williams' 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'. In the play, the main character is gay, while in the movie he is straight. I watched the movie first, and I couldn't understand why there is a problem between the husband and the wife, when they love each other. Then I read the play and I realized why. There is something similar in Rattigan's play.

'Separate Tables' seems to have been one of Rattigan's most successful plays. It ran in West End for two years, and it was made into a movie with a star cast (Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Rita Hayworth – Wow!) which received multiple Oscar nominations and won two Oscars. I'd love to watch that movie.

Sharing one of my favourite parts from the second play 'Table Number Seven'.

#BeginQuote

SIBYL. I’m a freak, aren’t I?

MISS COOPER (in matter-of-fact tones). I never know what that word means. If you mean you’re different from other people, then, I suppose, you are a freak. But all human beings are a bit different from each other, aren’t they? What a dull world it would be if they weren’t.

SIBYL. I’d like to be ordinary.

MISS COOPER. I wouldn’t know about that, dear. You see, I’ve never met an ordinary person. To me all people are extraordinary. I meet all sorts here, you know, in my job, and the one thing I’ve learnt in five years is that the word normal, applied to any human being, is utterly meaningless. In a sort of a way it’s an insult to our Maker, don’t you think, to suppose that He could possibly work to any set pattern.

#EndQuote

Have you read 'Separate Tables'? What do you think about it? Which is your favourite Terence Rattigan play?

[KathleenW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this one. I picked up this book because I was watching a British/uk television show and they mentioned the playwright! I've been enthralled with British culture and had also recently watched a movie about a woman that moved into one of these "boarding hotels". Now I am imagining that they are some sort of a common thing that older people move into in England? The movie was called Mrs Palfry at the Claremont. On Prime. I loved that one.

Now I'm trying to remember which show I was watching where they mentioned Rattigan, but it could've been The Hour.
Regardless, he sounded like a well respected playwright author when i researched, so I picked this book up. Takes place at the same location 18 months apart. Very simple and basic human situations but interesting! I will definitely buy another Rattigan and read it.

[Kevin McAvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two plays by Sir Terence Rattigan. They both take place 18 months apart in Bournemouth holiday hotel. I imagined the Fawlty Towers set while reading.
The plays dialogue is perfectly suited to please middle class theatre-goers and the 2nd play, Table Number 7, has/had a gay version and a straight version.
It shows Rattigan's skill that they both are satisfyingly resolved.
I will read more from him.
The 2 plays here were blended together into a movie in 1958.

[Anton Segers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twee aparte verhalen gesitueerd in een hotelletje waar Einzelgängers vast verblijven, het onderwerp de eenzaamheid door emotionele repressie.
De critici zullen het wel te traditioneel noemen, maar Rattigan is drama van hoog niveau. Hij paart een Brits gevoel voor understatement en subtiele psychologie aan een prachtige empathie, wat ook die van de toeschouwer oproept.

[The Awkward Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Actual Rating is 3.4 stars-

I had to read this for a uni module and enjoyed it more than I was expecting to. Not sure if I would ever reread it though as there's still not that much happening in it for my liking.

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting how it's different from the film which blends these two plays into one.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swimming upstream, I like well made plays.

[Vincent Lombardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw the film adaptation and loved it, but I was bored by the play, probably because much of what I read I already saw in the movie. I would like to see the play performed someday, however.

[Elliot · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd pair, well written

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do like Rattigan's plays, but they do feel terribly folded in sometimes. The emotion is shown so sparingly you could blink and miss it.

[Mrs Hilary McNevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excited to play Miss Cooper - will be reading this a few hundred times!

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely observed...though hampered somewhat by a bit of sentimentality (at the end of both plays).

[Glenn Hopp · Rating 5 out of 5]

These two one-act plays, set at a sea-side hotel and intended to be performed in one evening, are excellent at making public the insecurities and deepest shames of a handful of characters. What is more amazing is that the same two actors play the male/female leads in both plays. In the first they play damaged, fallen, but charming and attractive people who must swallow pride and find a way of coping with reduced straits. In the second they are people crippled by their insecurities. Especially in the second play, Rattigan forces all the hotel residents to become involved in the drama of the two leads. In a completely natural and entirely absorbing way, he uses the impersonal setting of the hotel to bring out every character’s essential and most personal nature, whether kind or cruel, fair or unfair. Slight spoilers: one nice touch is how a young married couple surprise themselves by viewing the matter of the Major in opposite ways. Another concerns the manageress of the hotel, who is saddened to realize how comfortable she has become with her own solitude. The famous (and quite good) 1958 film, by blending the two stories and bringing in two more actors to play the other couple, somehow lessens the power of the play as a meditation on loneliness. Rattigan (1911-1977), who was a closeted gay, always wrote movingly about the inner voice longing to be expressed.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful!

[notyourmonkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, awkward, uncomfortable people are awkward and uncomfortable! Still, kudos to Rattigan for still making me want to know what happens next to awkward, uncomfortable people.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic. Meaningful, manageable and comprehensible.

[Ginny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking even in our more enlightened times.