Plays - One : French Without Tears, The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, Harlequinade

Plays - One : French Without Tears, The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, Harlequinade

by Anthony Cole (Author), Terence Rattigan (Author)

Synopsis

"Few dramatists of this century have written with more understanding of the human heart than Terence Rattigan" (Guardian) Constantly revived on stage, radio and television, Rattigan's plays demonstrate their continuing power to hold and move audiences. This volume contains his best work from the thirties and forties, including his first play French Without Tears, about a group of "bright young things" attempting to learn French on the Riviera amid numerous distractions. The second play The Winslow Boy, based on an actual case, is the powerful, deliberately well-made drama of a father's attempts to clear his cadet son's name against the assembled might of Britain's naval establishment - the Admiralty. Completing the volume are two one-act plays Harlequinade, a sustained joke against some well-worn theatrical conventions and The Browning Version which portrays a disliked classics master, Crocker-Harris on the point of retiring after eighteen years of unsuccessful teaching "well up there among the dozen greatest plays written in this country this century." (The Spectator) "Terence Rattigan is the English Tennessee Williams. He maps out the same fatal divorce between the spiritual and the physical, the same drama of lost souls and misdirected lusts, of people stranded with their frustrations, blasted by guilt and reaching out for rescue that they know full well will fail" (Sunday Times)

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Methuen Publishing
Published: 07 Jan 1982

ISBN 10: 041349070X
ISBN 13: 9780413490704

Media Reviews
Winslow Boy:'Rattigan's defiant reiteration of the ancient legal mantra let right be done , his attack on the despotism of bureaucracy , his declaration that democracy will be the poorer if smaller injustices are ignored, his faith that the English will triumph over tyranny - all that packs a punch today, as it did when the play had its premiere in 1946.' Benedict Nightingale, The Times, 19.5.09 Winslow Boy: 'A paragon of well-made drama... What a fine piece of craftsmanship this play is. The overall plot is a cunningly laid series of twists and snares.' Patrick Marmion, Daily Mail, 22.5.09 'One of the finest dramatists of the last century, uniting superb technical skills with a deep understanding of both the human heart and the British habit of repressing emotion.' Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 22.5.09