Cause Célèbre

by Terence Rattigan

Terence Rattigan

Characters: 15 male, 5 female, 1 boy

Unit set.

A woman on trial with her 20 years younger lover for the murder of her husband creates the title drama in this incendiary recreation of the infamous case of Alma Rattenbury and 18 year-old George Percy Stoner. In 1935, when accused of murdering her husband in their Bournemouth home, the headlines created an early tabloid sensation as woman and boy both take the blame, while sexual freedom is cast in sharp relief against the the stifling morality of post-Victorian England. From the celebrated author of Separate Tables and The Browning Version, Cause Celebre will be revived at London's Old Vic in Spring 2011.

"No one alive writes with such understanding of sexual love or with such profound pity for its victims."-Daily Telegraph, London

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Crime, Fiction, British Literature

71 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

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

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rattigan's last play (he actually got off his hospital deathbed to attend the opening!) premiered in 1977, but seems of a much older era, perhaps because it is set in 1934 and based on an infamous murder trial of that year. It concerns a forty-something woman (originally played by Glynis Johns on stage, and Helen Mirren in a TV adaptation in 1988 - see below), who convinces her teenage lover to bash her elderly husband to death, and then both are put on trial for his murder.

It's an elegantly written and often humorous piece, although the subplot about the jury forewoman seems almost superfluous. The ending comes as a delightful surprise, and I am sure it would play as well today as it did back in the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb0g2...

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rattigan is on familiar ground: powerful and irrational passion amid class and repression.

[Dianne Durante · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this work appealed to me, but the summary said it's based on the 1935 trial of a woman and her teenage lover, one or the other of whom murdered the woman's husband. That summary made me doubt whether I wanted to read it, much less recommend it ... I did and I do. One qualification: if you only have time to read one Rattigan play and haven't read *The Browning Version* or *The Winslow Boy,* read one of them instead. NOTE: If you purchase an edition with a long intro about the historical basis for this play, I suggest you read that *after* the play. It's interesting for the info it presents on Rattigan's life and times (this was his last play), and for the factual basis of the play, but it's got spoilers.

[Harry McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh this is sort of fun and rollicking, while remaining deeply empathetic.

[Anton Segers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Het laatste stuk van Rattigan is weer vakkundig geschreven, maar raakt je als toeschouwer minder doordat de moordzaak die hij gebruikt voor zijn zoveelste aanklacht tegen de Britse hypocrisie minder beroert dan zou mogen, en omdat het parallel verhaal van het jurylid minder bijbrengt dan zou moeten.

[Luke Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty good play

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pas mal

[Paul Servini · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Rattigan's most famous plays based on the trial of a woman and her much younger lover for the murder of the husband.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good play about a true scandal in the 1920s.