Flare Path
Written by Terrence Rattigan
Directed by Robin Witt
at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont (map)
thru Feb 24 | tickets: $25-$32 | more info
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Love between bombing runs
Griffin Theatre presents
Flare Path
Review by Lawrence Bommer
Write about what you know, they say. Terrence Rattigan’s first success, his 1942 drama Flare Path, depicts the RAF fliers who fought the Battle of Britain and then, in the pain of payback, brought their bombs to Germany. Rattigan, himself a flier, was in a plane shot down by a Nazi Messerschmitt that had to lighten its load in order to conserve fuel. Every crew member had to sacrifice non-essential items into the sea: For Rattigan that meant saving the pages but dumping the notebook that was the rough draft of this play. (The aircraft landed with only two minutes of fuel left.)
It’s fortunate that Rattigan kept the play—here given its first Chicago production in a well-targeted Griffin Theatre staging by Robin Witt. Unable to exorcise it, Rattigan remembers and records the horror of deaths in the sky. They prove harrowing: Among other moments, we watch as a British bomber gets ambushed by a hidden German attack plane that had somehow been undetected hovering over the aerodrome.
The setting is near that field—the Falcon Hotel, Milchester in Lincolnshire, 1940. As he did with his masterwork Separate Tables twelve years later, Rattigan uses a lobby and adjoining lounge to vividly depict pilots and their loved ones. They’re trapped in a world where survival is a daily struggle and any hoped-for outcome—war or love—owes more to chance than destiny.
The potentially melodramatic crisis at the heart of this caring if conventional drama centers on Patricia Warren (Darci Nalepa), a hopeful bit actress married for less than a year to young and trusting bomber pilot Lt. Teddy Graham (Joey deBettencourt). Teddy is a hero to his men only because he hides his fears during every bombing run, later suffering panic attacks and incipient PTSD. Only Patricia gives him to the strength to muddle on. Also at the hotel is fading film star Peter Kyle (Paul Dunckel), in love with Patricia since 1938 and intending to run off with her, leaving Teddy to fight the war by himself.
Wisely and warmly, Rattigan puts this potentially tragic triangle in its proper context. He contrasts their emotional impasse and untested affection with two other couples—the vibrant and well-lubricated passion between a former goodtime girl (Vanessa Greenway) and her bumbling but ardent husband, a Polish flier (Gabe Franken) who loves her more than he can say in English. (Happily, he can write it in French.) Then there’s the edgier partnership of diffident tail gunner Dusty Miller (Dylan Stuckey) and his controlling but concerned Maudie (Lauren Pizzi). Seeing their stories, Patricia learns that right now the center of everything is the war—so love and duty must not be pitted against each other.
Rattigan peoples his busy lobby with very eccentric British types (but, happily, no one with a stiff upper lip), like the fussbudget, by-the-rules proprietress (Mary Poole), an eager-beaver barboy (Daniel Desmarias), and the irascible squadron leader (John Connolly). They’re drawn from life and brilliantly restored to it by Witt’s well-honed ensemble.
Whatever predictability the plot imposes on real life, the result is mannered make-believe that’s polished and persuasive. I only wish that Rattigan knew how and when to end the play. Instead he delivers a communal happy ending straight out of Kaufman and Hart: This clumsily comic finale rather mars the bittersweet revelations that precede it and that had fully settled everything that was at stake. Better to quit when we’re as happy as the story can allow.
Rating: ★★★
Flare Path continues through February 24th at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30, Sundays 3pm. Tickets are $price, and are available by phone (773-975-8150) or online through TheaterWit.org (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at GriffinTheatre.com. (Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes, includes an intermission)
artists
cast
Paul Dunckel (Peter Kyle); Darci Nalepa (Patricia Warren-Graham); Joey DeBettencourt (Flight Lieutenant Teddy Graham); Vanessa Greenway (Countess Skriczevinsky); Gabe Franken (Flying Officer Count Skriczevinsky); Dylan Stuckey (Sergeant Dusty Miller); Lauren Pizzi (Mrs. Maudie Miller); Mary Poole (Mrs. Oakes); Daniel Desmarais (Percy); Connor Culpepper (Corporal Wiggy Jones); John Connolly (Squadron Leader Swanson)
behind the scenes
Robin Witt (director); Izumi Inaba (costumes); Brandon Wardell (lighting); Joe Schermoly (set); Christian Gero (sound); Jon Ravenscroft (stage manager)
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