The Deep Blue Sea

by Terrence Rattigan

Genres: Plays

104 pages, Unknown Binding

First published March 6, 1952

Reviews

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

The play opens with Hester Collyer lying unconscious, possibly dead, in front of an unlit gas fire. Smelling the gas, a couple living in the same apartment building force their way in and discover her in time to save her. With the help of the mother-hen landlady, Mrs. Elton, who summons another lodger, once a doctor, they manage to resuscitate her. The young couple, newly married, are just trying to figure out married life so they are shocked at and somewhat fascinated by what is clearly a couple whose lives have gone somewhat off track. The landlady knows, or seems to know, everyone’s secrets being an inveterate eaves dropper.
The doctor has been struck off the register. We never find out why but his wisdom and caring suggest it was not because of willful malpractice. He is kind to Hester, and keeps an eye on her preventing her from doing it again. He repeatedly challenges her to choose life.
Hester is not married to the man she lives with and since the landlady has figured out who her husband is, a prominent and respected high court judge, she calls and tells him what has happened. When Sir William Collyer arrives, you begin to realize what is at the heart of the marriage breakdown. He does not seem to be able to show emotion. He obviously cares about Hester but at the same time he feels she should give up her affair and come back to him because that is the correct thing to do. As she tells him, just one meeting with Freddie Page, a dashing RAF pilot at a social event the couple had attended was enough to make her fall passionately in love.
We begin to learn that the precipitating event was Freddie’s failure to return home on her birthday from an all-night gambling and drinking binge to take her out to dinner as he had promised. When Freddie eventually returns you can see that he feels trapped in the relationship. They have spent time together where he was a test pilot, a job he lost when his drinking became a problem. Now they are in London both desperately unhappy. She still passionately desires him, but he finds every excuse to be absent. He is supposed to be looking for a job but the only one on offer is as a test pilot in South America.
This play was first produced in 1952 so the sexual mismatch of Hester and her husband had to be subtly presented and it is. You realize by the contrasting demeanor of Sir William and Freddy what repels her in the first and attracts her to the latter. Hester is torn between two unbearable prospects, returning to a passionless marriage or facing life without the lover who no longer wants her, truly the devil and the deep blue sea.
Evidently the subject of the play was prompted by the suicide by gas of Terrence Rattigan’s gay lover. At the time homosexuality was illegal in Britain so in order to discuss the tragedy of a lopsided love relationship he had to write the play in heterosexual terms.
Reading the script brought the play to life for me. Watching a 1980s BBC version on YouTube afterwards added depth, particularly through the body language of the excellent cast.
Rattigan showed in this and his other plays that you can convey difficult and complex interpersonal conflict without having to go to extremes through setting and language.

[Martin Foroz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a room to bury love in and to keep the memories out. It’s a play in which time and place doesn’t really change. The story happens in one day and everything goes on just in a room. But this room carries memories and pops up flashbacks. Watching the room from an outsider’s viewpoint gives the person a sense of experiencing a sort of isolation that can be indirectly shared by the characters and the audience. The play starts with despair, Hester committing suicide and ends with a trace of hope, Hester standing beside the gas fire as the beginning of the play, but this time the gas fire is lit. If you are interested in digging into the dark themes and the reactions you may make when you’re between the devil and “the deep blue sea,” this play is worth reading.

[Romany Arrowsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

National Theater Live subscription 3: My first Rattigan, have never seen the movie. Reminiscent of Tennessee Williams, you end up rooting for everyone, even the straight-up bastards. One of the few great plays I've seen with a hopeful ending, I think there's a bias in theater towards existential/sociological despair.

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

so beautiful and wonderful

[Iza Konings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super compelling play, about the effects of war on a household

[Cameron Tief · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine play but nothing too much happens. All set within a day. Excited to talk about it at the American library book club today

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting play with good characters. One that definitely benefits from watching it rather than just reading it.

[Amin Houta · Rating 2 out of 5]

rich white people being unreasonable