The Deep Blue Sea

Emotional Depths

The Deep Blue Sea

by Terence Rattigan

Teddington Theatre Club at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre until 21^st March

Review by Gill Martin

If you are seeking vintage Terence Rattigan look no further than The Deep Blue Sea, Teddington Theatre Club’s latest offering at Hampton Hill’s Coward Studio.

It’s an intimate setting, with just fifty seats for its first night sell-out, with a faithful reproduction of the 1950s with floral curtains, cafe chairs and fringed standard lamps, popular in post-war Britain.

The atmosphere is claustrophobic and unsettling with both acts set over a single day in a north-west London boarding house complete with landlady (Melanie Richardson) in obligatory headscarf and housecoat.

Over the last half century there have been a host of revivals in the West End and regional theatres. And what a line up of stellar performances from the premiere’s Peggy Ashcroft to the likes of Sheila Hancock, Honor Blackman, Dorothy Tutin, Penelope Keith, Penelope Wilton, Greta Scacchi, Maxine Peake, Helen McCrory and Tamsin Greig in the female lead.

These were huge theatrical feet for Mia Skytte to fill as Hester. She does so faultlessly, conveying emotional depth as she sees her life crumble. Hester has split from her husband Sir William Collyer, now a buttoned up High Court judge (Richard Scott), and fallen for the dashingly handsome test pilot Freddie (Josh Miller). Their love-lust affair proves a dangerous liaison that takes a desperate toll on them both.

A failed suicide attempt, a downward spiral into booze-fuelled depression, passionate and destructive emotions in equal measure conspire to make compelling theatre.

While Hester, a clergyman’s daughter with the looks and style of an English rose, paints pretty landscapes as an escape from repression, societal expectations and the unbearable burden of unrequited love. But Freddie seeks solace in Scotch and golf. He’s unemployed, behind with the rent and feels his life stopped in 1940.

Dashing and dangerous Freddie has crashed a plane in his last civilian job and needs to kick the bottle if he is to find more flying work. He is the complete opposite to the smug, pin-striped and comfortable Collyer.

Despite an impending divorce from Hester this chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce owning paragon still holds a candle to Hester. If only she could see sense and realise the truth in Freddie’s prophetic words to his mistress who lives as his wife. ‘You and I,’ he proclaims to Hester, ‘are death to each other.’

While the ill-starred lovers are the focus of Rattigan’s powerfully tense play, which is believed to have echoes of his own unhappy homosexual history, other cast members provide breadth to this production.

Steve Taylor shines as the gruff Mr Miller, a struck-off doctor turned bookie’s clerk, who makes the most of his one-off lines of dark humour.

Despite underlying bleakness and disappointment there is lightness too thanks to performances from nervous neighbours Philip (Hugo Allain) and Ann (Raphaella Simon), and blundering friend Jackie (Jasper Loxton).

There’s always a danger that a classic of this vintage can seem dated, but director Anna Piggott argues that the play, first performed in1952, remains relevant today. She writes, ‘Despite being written more than seventy years ago, the play continues to speak powerfully to modern audiences. Its exploration of emotional dependency, the fear of abandonment and the struggle to rebuild a life after heartbreak remains strikingly contemporary.’

Gill Martin, March 2026

Photography by Kim Harding