Venue Magazine: 2011

You should have been there to experience that emotionally charged night. Flare Path had all the ingredients - the tense wartime setting, the bombers flying overhead, the romantic love triangle, and the knowledge that it was actually penned in 1941, when the fate of Britain was as yet unknown. The individual R.A.F. Officers were the real unsung heroes: for every 100 personnel flying out, only 24 made it to the end of a tour. The Centenary celebrations of Rattigan this year have seen renewed interest in his plays. Flare Path deservedly having the highest profile due to the enormously successful revival in the West End version. Here at The Rondo in Larkhall Bath, Mike Taylor's production has been meticulously researched to ensure that everything was right for the period - you would have been there... transported back to the Falcon Hotel Lincolnshire, war torn England 1941.

It's a cloistered little world here in Larkhall and, wandering suavely in one evening, Matt Nation's aging matinée idol might as well have been from another planet. Certainly that's how Doris (Louise Wallace), a dotty barmaid married to a Polish count stationed on the base, receives him, clucking in delight at this celluloid vision made flesh. But when she shushes him so she can listen to a plane pass by, it's the first hint that Peter's plans to fly in and dazzle his ex-lover may encounter turbulence.

Of course it's partly wartime propaganda: Peter is the cosseted cad, his failings exposed by the R.A.F. 'lads'. But there's so much more to Rattigan than that, and Taylor's poignant production is alive to to the plays' bittersweet textures. What Doris and Teddy know and Patricia and Peter come to learn, is that for all life's myriad subtleties, sometimes there is no option but to exist only in black and white. It's a lesson Matt Nation's Peter finally learns in a moving flood of tears. And it's a way of life that Wallace's Doris lives to the full. From the way she expresses her hurt at a snide comment only via a look in her eyes as she exits, to the gravitas she injects into to the saccharine ending, there's an ocean of feeling behind her cheery façade.

Patricia Graham's inner conflict feels tangible as she tries to contain the emotional roller coaster welling up inside her. The killer 'app' of Teddys' phrase 'Moral fibre' finally spills over her into a bright lustre of love for a man she barely knew, and so Peters fate was sealed.
Elsewhere, I loved Paul Olding's Italianesque Polish pilot whose stumbling vocabulary tickled the rib cage with gusto. Taylor's production is very good, and mention should go to some fine supporting turns from Bobbie Tan, Andrew Fletcher, Michael Comba, Carenza Ellery and Steve Curtis.

The whole production team should be praised for their efforts in creating such an authentic platform from which Flare Path was launched. The attention to detail was subtle and eye catching from the stage management of Tony Wood, lighting and design operation of Tony White, the sound designs from Paul Olding, lighting and sound operation from Adrian and Ros Cottle, the Set by Northend Productions, Properties Bobbie Tan, production assistance from Sally Collins, Costumes by Chrissy Fryers to the hair by Charlotte Howard.

For me the evening beautifully captured both the sense of danger and its boozy, raucous aftermath. The performances were impeccable. Harriet Pocock looked suitably strained, tense and taut as the agonised Patricia. Matt Nation admirably conveys the sense of exclusion felt by the movie star caught up in wartime action. You could feel the tears welling up as he hesitatingly translates to the Countess (Louise Wallace) whose features light up as she learns how much she was loved by her missing-in-action husband. Rob Dawsons' performance is nothing short of serene despite the emotional turmoil surrounding him and the atmospherics generated in the one to one scenes of each of the participants was frankly electric. You should have been there...

DeafboyOne

Venue Magazine

Sunday 27 November 2011

Venue Magazine: FLARE PATH

Venue Magazine: FLARE PATH

FLARE PATH

Friday 1 April 2011

FAB! Fringe Arts Bath