You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Originally published: London: Methuen/Nick Hern Books, 1999.
In his lifetime he was a well-known public figure, yet despite his friendships Rattigan always publicly hid his homosexuality. In this biography, Michael Darlow describes this aspect of Rattigan's life and fully considers it in relation to his work.
None
This book asserts the extraordinary quality of mid-twentieth century playwright Terence Rattigan’s dramatic art and its basis in his use of subtext, implication, and understatement. By discussing every play in chronological order, the book also articulates the trajectory of Rattigan’s darkening vision of the human potential for happiness from his earlier comedies through his final plays in which death appears as a longed for peace. New here is the exploration through close analysis of Rattigan’s style of writing dialogue and speeches, and how that style expresses Rattigan’s sense of life. Likewise, the book newly examines how Rattigan draws on sources in Greek and Roman history, literature, and myth, as well as how he invites comparison with the work of other playwrights, especially Bernard Shaw and Shakespeare. It will appeal broadly to college and university students studying dramatic literature, but also and especially to actors and directors, and the play-going, play-reading public.
The greatest plays of Terence Rattigan (1911-77) - including The Browning Version, The Deep Blue Sea, Separate Tables and The Winslow Boy - are now established classics. There have been regular revivals of his work, including recent productions in the West End, at Chichester Festival Theatre and by the Peter Hall Company, which makes the first paperback edition of Geoffrey Wansell's acclaimed biography particularly timely. From the heady days of Rattigan's early success to the darker days of his decline in popularity, Wansell paints a captivating portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest theatrical lights. Geoffrey Wansell is vice president of the Terence Rattigan Society: www.theterencerattigansociety.co.uk
None
None
Geoffrey Wansell is the first writer to have been given full access to thousands of Terence Rattigan's private papers and to have talked at length to Rattigan's friends. From the heady days of his early success to the darker days of his decline in popularity, Wansell paints a captivating portrait of one of the century's greatest theatrical lights.
Terence Rattigan was once regarded as the golden boy of the West End stage but he suffered a sudden and catastrophic fall from favour in the mid-1950s. In this new play, written to mark the centenary of Rattigan’s birth, he is 66 years old, in failing health, and waiting for the curtain to rise on his last play, Cause Célèbre. The Art of Concealment is not only about the demons that haunted one of our great playwrights but about the creative process itself, the loss of youth, the pain of love and the shallowness of fame. How does a playwright judge his own life? Can it be crafted, restructured, or does he have a duty to be honest, finally, about himself? The play received critical acclaim during a sell-out run at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London.