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Alastair Whatley as
Teddy and Olivia Hallinan as Patricia
in
Flare Path. Photograph: Jack
Ladenburg
Flare Path
Belgrade Theatre
***
TERENCE
Rattigan’s Flare Path,
set on a Lincolnshire airfield sometime in the early 1940s, sums up
elegantly the spirit of wartime when lives and mores were turned upside
down, for both men and women.
As the runway Flare Path lights up a safe way
forward, the old pre-war morality starts to become unrecognisable.
The Movies provide escapism personified
here in fading but dashing Hollywood matinee idol Peter Kyle (Leon
Ockenden) visiting The Falcon (without luggage?) hoping to rekindle his
relationship with ‘old flame’ West End actress Patricia Warren (Olivia
Hallinan) aka Mrs Teddy Graham.
Teddy Graham (Alastair Whatley), Bomber Command
pilot, faces daily the real battle of life and death, and is sweetly
unaware of his wife’s past or the choice between them she is asked to
make.
While marvellous Mrs Oakes (Stephanie Jacob) and
brilliant bell-boy Percy (James Cooney) run the hotel with old-fashioned
efficiency amid wartime shortages and blackouts (and supply a good deal
of the comedy), ‘Countess’ Doris (Siobhan O’Kelly), a barmaid, has
married Polish airman Count Johnny Skriczensky (Adam Best) though fears
that if he survives the war he will return to Poland without her.
Squadron Leader ‘Gloria’ Swanson (Philip Franks)
supplies admirable admin and sympathy. On this ‘day in the life’ tail
end gunner ‘Dusty’ Miller (Simon Darwen) has a rare visit from wife
Maudie (Shvorne Marks) but that Bomber’s Moon calls them all out to face
the enemy and their demons.
Four bombers take off at dead of night, only two
limp home in the morning – one more, bearing the Count, is lost at sea
for hours. Doris fetches the letter in French that he has written in
case of his death. Peter Kyle is the only one able to translate and
reluctantly reads out Johnny’s words of love. It is the pivotal point
for at least two relationships.
There were some dodgy moments on stage and Doris
being undecided on accents didn’t help in placing the play, somewhere
between Edinburgh and Durham? The start pace was scarily slow and,
though the set was impressive, there was a vast amount of unnecessary
‘toing and froing’ particularly up the stairs that slowed the pace even
more. However, the bombers flying overhead was thoroughly convincing
(and very loud), the dread of losing Johnny palpable and the whole show
enjoyable.
Produced by The Original Theatre Company and
directed by Justin Audibert, Flare Path flies to 7 November.
Jane Howard
03-11-15
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