مبارک یا بداَختر، بخواهیم یا نه، اکنون پرسشی هولناک پیش رویمان است: چه شد که انسان «ویران» شد؟ عشق، اضطراب، اغواگری، خودستایی، تظاهر، گستاخی، بیتفاوتی، سرخوشی، بردباری، اشتیاق یا خواست خدایی قادر، هرچه بود، انسان بهطرز هولناکی ویران شد.
شخصیتهای نمایشنامهٔ پس از مهمانی نیز چنیناند. فرقی نمیکند پنجرههای عمارتِ دیوید اسکات-فالر را باز کنیم یا کتابهای کتابخانهٔ عمومی لندن را، درهرحال، انسانهایی را میبینیم که همواره در حال ویران شدناند. با این همه، هراسی دیگر نیز مسبب نگرانی است: «او که میداند کیست، حرمت پرسش را از بین برده است.» و باید اقرار کرد که نابودیِ انسان از خوفانگیزترین پدیدههای قرن بیستم است.
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.
Rattigan displays the fragility and shallowness of old sots avoiding personal and political realities. He nicely combines psychological empathy with political criticism.
ENGLISH: A mature writer, married for 15 years, is seduced by a twenty-year-old girl, who was engaged to his secretary. His wife, who is supposed not to love him, seeing that this time things are serious, commits suicide during a party. Her death changes things for everyone affected.
Why do famous, intelligent men who are no longer young, so often fall for girls 25 to 50 years younger and leave their lifelong wives? Real life offers many examples, and although sometimes these men understand that they have made a grave mistake, they rarely confess it.
ESPAÑOL: Un escritor maduro y casado desde hace 15 años es engatusado por una chica veinteañera, prometida de su secretario, que se empeña en conquistarle. Su esposa, que se supone que no le quiere, al ver que esta vez la cosa va en serio, se suicida durante una fiesta. Su muerte cambia las cosas para todos los afectados.
¿Por qué hombres famosos, inteligentes y que ya han dejado atrás la juventud, se dejan engatusar tan a menudo por chicas 25 a 50 años más jóvenes que ellos y abandonan a sus esposas de siempre? La vida real ofrece numerosos ejemplos de esto, y aunque a veces esos hombres comprenden que han cometido un error gravísimo, no siempre lo reconocen.
4.5 stars rounded up. Perhaps reading all of the notes in the foreword of this edition did not leave me in the best frame of mind for reading the actual play, as it took me more of the first act than I would have liked to get my teeth into this. Once I got into it though, I was hooked.
I found After the Dance to be a fascinating study of human psychology, particularly in dealing with the theme of feeling trapped in life. The exploration of the ways to break out of this cycle, if it is even possible, and particularly when it has begun as a result of post-war trauma, is very poignant and thought-provoking.
Written in reflection of World War I, with WWII looming mere months later, it could quite easily have referred to either. As a modern audience we know what the first audiences would not have - that history is about to repeat itself. In ways this adds further weight to the end of the play, where the audience is left seeing that after an earlier tragedy - very little has actually changed.
I'm going to be hugely biased, given that I read this play because I was *in* it, and as such have a particular attachment to it. Still, I do feel the script is very well written and humanized. I didn't know anything about Terence Rattigan prior to this, but I have really come to respect his writing. I haven't read any of his other works, but I have seen Deep Blue Sea performed and I really appreciate how clear his voice is in his writing. I am sadly fascinated with the story of Joan and David and Helen's intervening within that. It's beautiful, tragic, and also slightly ridiculous (which is one of the points being made, in a way, I think).
This is my absolute favourite play by Terence Rattigan. It has the element of everyone putting on a face so other people will not see what they are truly like, which is something all of us face every day. The characterization is brilliant in this play. While subtle, every little thing makes a huge difference. My favourite character is Joan because she is so personable about how showing your true self is frightening because who knows if they will actually love you and want you after that.