“The Deep Blue Sea” at Theatre Royal Haymarket

Neil Dowden in the West End
18 May 2025

First seen at Theatre Royal Bath last year, Lindsay Posner’s revival of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea – with mainly the same cast led by Tamsin Greig – now receives a well-deserved transfer to the West End. The 1952 play has emerged as Rattigan’s finest work. While the craftsmanship is characteristically superb – with a perfectly formed structure following the classical theatre unities – it also presents a deeply moving account of unequal romantic love that is inclusively sympathetic to different viewpoints. This finely modulated production strikes just the right tone.

Nicholas Farrell and Tamsin Greig.
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.

The three acts are set during the morning, afternoon, and evening of one day in a run-down flat of a multi-storey house in west London as we follow the aftermath of Hester Collyer’s attempted suicide. It’s a dramatic opening as we see the landlady and a fellow tenant discover Hester’s inert body stretched out on the floor by the gas fire – apparently her life was only saved because the meter ran out of coins. It is only when another tenant, former doctor Mr Miller, examines her that Hester is forced to acknowledge this was no accident – while the suicide note on the mantelpiece gives the game away.

The previous day was Hester’s birthday, but entirely forgotten by her unemployed partner Freddie Page away playing golf. This has brought home something that she has actually known for a long time – that the man she adores, an ex-RAF fighter pilot who has struggled to adapt to civilian life since the end of the war, does not or cannot return the all-embracing love that has led her to leave her high court judge husband Sir William Collyer. In her heart of hearts Hester knows that at some point the younger Freddie will abandon her, while she can’t face returning to the older Sir William who still wants her back. Only the stoical Miller – now a bookie’s runner who had to rebuild his own life after being struck off for some unnamed reason – holds out the real chance of a future as he urges her to “Get beyond hope”.

Hester undoubtedly attracts most of our sympathies because of the intensity of her feelings that drives her to extremes. Her actions may seem excessive, but her emotional (even masochistic) dependence on Freddie signals a serious lack of self-esteem. As a young clergyman’s daughter she married Sir William, a decent man who lacks passion, while her own sexuality was only awakened after meeting Freddie who is never going to make the commitment she yearns for.

But Rattigan also makes us understand how Hester’s demands – not to mention discovering she has tried to kill herself – suffocate the immature Freddie, while a growing drink problem is endangering his career as a test pilot. And we appreciate Sir William’s loyalty and indeed generosity despite his patriarchal stiffness. Even the voyeuristic neighbours are portrayed as well-intentioned. Rattigan’s even-handedness is remarkable.

It’s now well known that Rattigan was inspired to write the play after hearing of the suicide of his former lover Kenny Morgan, and some have even suggested that it should be decoded as a “gay play”. But that would be to rewrite what Rattigan achieved. Hester Collyer is one of the greatest female roles in post-war British drama, created by Peggy Ashcroft, and followed by the likes of Dorothy Tutin, Penelope Wilton, Harriet Walter, and Helen McCrory.

Inevitably in transferring from the small Ustinov Studio in Bath to the 800-plus capacity Theatre Royal Haymarket, Posner’s production does lose some of its intimacy, and occasionally the subtlety does not come through. But overall the emotional impact of the drama remains huge in spite – or because? – of Rattigan’s restrained use of subtext with characters concealing or understating their feelings.

Peter McKintosh’s design captures Hester and Freddie’s precarious circumstances with faded furniture and peeling wallpaper in their flat, plus of course the all-important gas meter. Gregory Clarke’s sound design includes the initially alarming hiss of gas being released, with Paul Pyant’s beautifully lit fire giving the room a rosy glow at the end.

Greig gives a completely convincing and extremely touching performance as Hester, expertly conveying her fluctuating moods from despair to hope to resignation, while also making the most of a few moments of sardonic humour reminding us of how she made her name in comedy. Hadley Fraser has joined the cast to play Freddie ( he already played the role at Chichester in 2019), giving him the reckless boyish charm of a wartime hero who has lost his way. Nicholas Farrell is an imposing but not overbearing Sir William trying to do what is just but out of his depth in matters of the heart.

Finbar Lynch shines as the quirkily enigmatic Miller, whose foreign accent and unconventionally insightful statements mark him as an outsider. Selina Cadell (also new to the cast) is an amusing but compassionate Mrs Elton, even if her nosy landlady verges towards caricature at times. Preston Nyman as a well-meaning but heavy-handed civil servant and Lisa Ambalavanar as his more sensitive wife are concerned neighbours, and Marc Elliott as Freddie’s confidant and former colleague complete an excellent cast.