Terence Rattigan
Personal Information
Description
Sir Terence Rattigan, in full Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan, born in South Kensington, London, of Irish extraction, was an English screenwriter and playwright. Rattigan was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Oxford. Rattigan had early success with two farces, French Without Tears (performed 1936) and While the Sun Shines (performed 1943). The Winslow Boy (performed 1946), a drama based on a real-life case in which a young boy at the Royal Naval College was unjustly accused of theft, won a New York Critics award. Separate Tables (performed 1945), perhaps his best known work, took as its theme the isolation and frustration that result from rigidly imposed social conventions. The radio play Cause Célèbre was his final work; first broadcast in 1975, it was performed onstage in 1977. Several of his plays seriously explore social or psychological themes, and his plays consistently demonstrate solid craftsmanship. Rattigan was knighted in 1971 for his services to the theatre. He had many screenplays to his credit, including film versions of The Winslow Boy (1948) and Separate Tables (1958), among others, and The Yellow Rolls Royce (1965) and Goodbye Mr. Chips (1968). Source: [Britannica](
Books
Ross, a dramatic portrait
A play based on the Arabian War exploits of Thomas Edward Lawrence.
The Winslow boy
Ronnie Winslow, 14, returns to his upper class home having been dismissed in disgrace from his naval college on suspicion of stealing. A QC takes on the case and the boy has to withstand the Royal Naval Establishment seeking to discredit him.
After the dance
Edited by Alan Warner.
Love in idleness
The Browning version
Terence Rattigan's 'The Browning Version' is a one-act play about an unpopular schoolmaster who, faced with the collapse of his career and marriage, snatches a last shred of dignity when he receives an unexpected gift from a pupil.
In praise of love
"Invoking a vibrant cast of thinkers, from Kierkegaard and de Beauvoir to Proust and Lacan, the world-renowned French philosopher urges us not to fear love but to see it as an adventure, a magnificent quest that ultimately leads us away from an obsession with the self"--Page 4 of cover.
First Episode
"Published here for the first time, First Episode is Terence Rattigan's first play. Written with his fellow student, Philip Heimann, while they were both at Oxford, it shows an infatuated undergraduate, Tony, falling for Margot, an actress ten years his senior. And vice versa. Completing a triangle of rival affections is Tony's best friend, David."--Page 4 of cover.
Plays, One
Harlequinade and All on Her Own
"Harlequinade follows a classical theatre company whose intrigues and dalliances are revealed with increasingly calamitous consequences in an affectionate celebration of the lunatic art of putting on a play. A powerful one-woman play, All On Her Own tells the story of Rosemary who, alone at midnight in London, has a secret burden to share that is both heartbreaking and sinister." -- Back cover.
Flare path
Terence Rattigan's Flare Path, written while he was serving as an air gunner with the RAF during the Second World War, is a story of love and loyalty following a group of RAF airmen and their wives over the course of one day. It was first produced (after a short run in Oxford) at the Apollo Theatre, London, on 13 August 1942.