"Flare Path" - by Terence Rattigan - Directed by Doug Gale

Images of war in gripping play

From the Wilts & Gloucestershire Standard, first published Friday 1st Oct 2004.

SCENES from the Second World War will be recreated when the Hatherley Players present Flare Path by Terence Rattigan at the Playhouse Theatre in Cheltenham's Bath Road from October 2-9.

A masterpiece by one of the best playwrights of the 20th century, Flare Path is a story of love and duty set against a wartime backdrop.  Airmen from the nearby bomber base are enjoying a brief weekend with wives, but their leave is interrupted when they have to go on an unscheduled mission.

The anguish of the wives as they wait and the truths that such intense moments reveal would have been all too familiar to 1940s audiences, as would the bonds of loyalty, trust and fellowship that members of each RAF squadron had for one another, regardless of rank.

Rattigan wrote his classic while serving as a tail gunner at the beginning of the war and it was first performed in 1942.

It is not just a powerful drama but also a fine example of art being used as a subtle platform for wartime propaganda.

The thrill for the cast and crew has been in the research and reproduction of the period detail.

Specialist sound equipment will be used to simulate the sound and feel of low-flying bombers and heavy use has been made of the internet to find examples of period packaging, labels and money, which have been reproduced using colour printers.

The male members of the cast are making the ultimate sacrifice - short back and sides and the removal of a beard in one case.

The review, by Simon Lewis, can be downloaded here