REVIEW: Flare Path

Stage Door Theatre Company at the Windmill, Littlehampton
The cast. Pic by Rosey PurchaseThe cast. Pic by Rosey Purchase
The cast. Pic by Rosey Purchase

The curtains opened on a handsome , realistic stage-set ( Mike Gearing & company ) representing the lobby of a hotel adjacent to a Second World War airfield . And this was the space in which Terence Rattigan showed us the lives , wives and loves of several brave fighter pilots in between their bombing sorties . The hotel was run by Mrs Oakes ( nice comic touches and timing from Maureen Ayres ) and an enthusiastic young waiter ( Howie Cobby).

Emma Millard did a nicely sustained job on “Countess Skriczevsky” , a daffy , ordinary girl who had acquired her title and Polish surname simply by being married to the Count , an airman with the Brits ( excellent “struggling-with-the-language” turn by Chris Nairne ) . Another couple involved a young Sergeant Miller ( Ben Sunderland ) and his characterful wife ( a pert and perky comic turn from Siobhana Healy ) .

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But at the centre of a story which gave fair exposure to many characters was a love-triangle . Patricia Graham , a former actress ( Clare Cossins ) , was married to fighter pilot Lieutenant Graham (Simon Bain ) . This relationship – initially comfortable if not terribly deep – was placed under threat by the unexpected arrival of film-star Peter Kyle ( Paul Jones ) , who had come to try to reclaim his former – and now married – actress-lover .

Each of these performers presented a thought-through characterisation . Paul invested Peter Kyle more with the emotional neediness of an aging man than with seedy Hollwood glamour and Clare gave a convincing account of the residual sentimental attachment one might well feel for a former lover . And yet , in spite of a strong confrontational scene between them , the “chemistry” between these these two readings of character ( both well-acted individually ) didn’t always feel dangerously explosive enough to threaten a really conflicted choice between quiet ,English decency and the call of the wild , especially after Lieutetant Graham had opened up and confessed his inner fears to his sympathetic wife .

There were two other members of the force : a young Corporal Jones ( Gary Boniface) and Squadron Leader Swanson ( David Rosser in resonant voice ) . And credit must be due to director Micki Darbyshire and assistant director Elana Healy for taking a wordy and in some senses dated Rattigan play and making us engage so sympathetically with the lives of its various characters .

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