Flare Path - Richmond Theatre and on tour
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
A REVIVAL of Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path will visit Richmond Theatre (September 1 to September 5, 2015) as part of a national tour.
Flare Path is set in 1942 when, at the Falcon Hotel on the edge of an airfield in Lincolnshire, Teddy, a young bomber pilot is celebrating a reunion with his actress wife Patricia.
However, events take an unexpected turn, when Peter, a famous heartthrob film star arrives, and an urgent bombing mission over Germany is ordered. As the night gives way to dawn, Patricia finds herself at the centre of a passionate conflict of love and loyalty as unpredictable as the war in the skies.
Flare Path, which was first performed in the West End at the Apollo Theatre in 1942, is based on Rattigan’s own Bomber Command experiences when he served as a tail gunner during the Second World War. He later reworked Flare Path into a screenplay and in 1945, it was released as The Way to the Stars starring Michael Redgrave.
Then, in 2011, Trevor Nunn directed Sienna Miller, James Purefoy and Sheridan Smith in the first of a series of productions he presented as Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company.
Produced by the same team behind Birdsong, the touring production of Flare Path will be directed by Justin Audibert, who is currently directing the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Jew of Malta. Casting has yet to be announced.
Also coming to Richmond Theatre: Sasha Regan’s acclaimed all-male production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance (April 15 – 18); Agatha Christie’s most popular and best-selling thriller And Then There Were None (May 26 – 30); and the award-winning comedy musical Avenue Q (October 27 – 31, 2015).
The Flare Path tour opens at Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne (August 18 – 29), before touring to Richmond, Bath, Malvern, Exeter, Cambridge, Ipswich, Coventry and Guildford, with further dates to be announced.