Flare Path by Terence Rattigan
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Ballarat National Theatre
Courthouse Theatre until 4th October
Set in a Lincolnshire inn in 1941, Terrence Rattigan’s “Flare Path” examines how three married couples deal with the nightly horrors faced by their RAF bomber crew husbands.
There is a realism to the language of this play that is reflective of Rattigan’s time as an RAF tail gunner. Rattigan’s characters display the stoic avoidance of emotionalism that characterises “Britishness”. The strength in the language lies as much in what is not said as in what is.
Michael Zala plays Flight Lieutenant Graham, the hero captain surviving on banter and alcohol. Zala provides humanity to what could have become a cartoon characterisation. Graham struggles to be the leader, a role he is sure is beyond him.
Tail gunner Sergeant “Dusty” Miller is played by Michael Moore with geniality, laughing in the face of death. Tail Gunners didn’t live long. Flying Officer Count Skriczevinsky, Polish and with limited English is created sensitively by Trevor Day. Potentially a comic foreigner, Day finds the depth Rattigan has written into the role.
Martin McGettigan is the laconic Squadron Leader Swanson, not a flyer, but a pen-pusher. McGettigan makes Swanson a bit of an outsider, which allows the audience to accept this play’s one overtly patriotic moment.
Into this collection of damaged airmen, keeping calm and carrying on, steps Peter Kyle, an actor on the way out, trying to reclaim his youth. Played energetically by Robert Thurman, Kyle’s other-ness forces our band of brothers to reflect on how their lives might have been.
However, it is the women who steal the show in this production. Liz Hardiman plays Pat Graham perceptively, inviting the audience to share her pain at the decisions she must make. Some may find her final decision unsatisfying, however Hardiman gives it an inner truth.
Linda Ogier is the highlight of this ensemble piece. As Doris Skriczevinsky, Ogier brings true pathos to the role, giving us a frightened young wife, loving a man she is sure will either die or leave her.
Janette Baxter captures the English landlady well, tough with a jelly centre, a more than adequate foil to the bravado of the airmen. Katrina Hill is convincing as Maudie Miller, who will hen-peck Dusty to death, if the war doesn’t get him first. Percy the potboy is played by Harrison Baker, convincing in this part.
Directed by Julian Oldfield this ensemble piece captures the inner tensions of 1942 Britain sensitively.