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Table Number Seven

The second of Terence Rattigan鈥檚 famous linked plays about repression and refuge in a run-down hotel. Starring Adrian Scarborough, Chloe Pirrie and Susan Brown.

Separate Tables is a vital portrait of postwar Britain in flux. Here, in a small, shabby hotel in Bournemouth, a brutal clash of generations is playing out. Beneath a veneer of respectability lies a modern world of desire, deception and violence.

Separate Tables comprises two linked one-act plays: Table By The Window and Table Number Seven. In this play, Table Number Seven, a newspaper reveals Major Pollock鈥檚 long-held secret. Will the other residents cast him out for good?

CAST
Major Pollock ..... Adrian Scarborough
Sibyl Railton-Bell ..... Chloe Pirrie
Mrs Railton-Bell ..... Susan Brown
Miss Cooper ..... Nathalie Armin
Lady Matheson ..... Ruth Everett
Mabel ..... Alexandra Hannant
Charles ..... Matthew Durkan
Jean ..... Marilyn Nnadebe
Miss Meacham ..... Rebecca Crankshaw
Mr Fowler ..... Neil McCaul

Written by Terence Rattigan
Directed by Anne Isger
Sound by Keith Graham, Mike Etherden, Ali Craig, Anne Bunting
Production Co-ordination by Gaelan Connolly and Clare Ewing
A 大象传媒 Audio Production for 大象传媒 Radio 4

A note on the play: This drama uses the 鈥榓lternative version鈥 of Rattigan's text, which was only discovered after Rattigan鈥檚 death, and never performed during his lifetime. In this version, the Major鈥檚 鈥榗rime鈥 is one of homosexuality, whereas in the originally performed version, the Major was accused of assaulting women. It鈥檚 generally accepted that the avoidance of reference to homosexuality was as a result of censorship of theatres imposed by the Lord Chamberlain at the time. Rattigan himself said 鈥業 had in fact appealed over the head of the Lord Chamberlain to the sensibilities and particular awareness of an English audience. I was in fact saying to them 鈥淟ook, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Lord Chamberlain has forced me into an evasion, but you and I will foil him. Everybody in the play is going to behave as if there were no evasion at all and as if the more important and serious theme were still the issue.鈥濃

57 minutes

Last on

Sun 31 Jul 2022 15:00

Broadcast

  • Sun 31 Jul 2022 15:00

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