FLARE PATH
by Terence Rattigan

Directed by Ian Higham

24-28 September, 7.45pm
Matinee  28 September, 3pm

Written in 1941 and first staged in London in 1942 Flare Path is based around Rattigan’s own experience as a tail gunner in RAF Coastal Command.

Set in a hotel near an RAF Bomber Command Airbase in Lincolnshire during the Second World War the play focuses on a love triangle between an actress (the wife of a Wellington Bomber pilot) and a Hollywood actor. The action plays out against a night time bombing raid on Germany, while the women wait together to hear about the fate of the crew.

Flare Path is a deeply moving, funny and compelling portrait of the bravery and stoicism of RAF Bomber crews and their wives during World War Two. This story and setting provides the perfect showcase for Rattigan’s unique ability to portray the struggle to keep powerful emotions hidden from view while presenting a ‘proper’ respectable face to the world, even in the hardest of situations.