Sienna Miller is the big draw in this hugely accomplished revival of Terence Rattigan's 1942 play - and she brings to her role just the right mixture of glacial poise and agonized tension. But it is the tightly controlled ensemble work that defines Sir Trevor Nunn's subtle and deeply affecting production, which marks his debut as the artistic director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
All the action takes place over a single weekend in autumn 1941, in the lounge of a modest hotel in Lincolnshire. Miller plays Patricia Warren, an elegant actress torn between loyalty to her doting husband Teddy, a pilot, and the obvious allure of her former lover, film star Peter Kyle, who arrives at the hotel intent on winning her back.
The hotel is a haven for exhausted air crews, and we sense their nourishing camaraderie as well as the gnawing anxieties of the wives who wait for them when they venture out on bombing missions. Rattigan wrote the play while serving in the RAF. Its title refers to the lines of flares that guided bombers home in the dark, and the subject matter was calculated to appeal to the sentiments of the moment.
Yet even if the material seems a little dated and schematic, there's no mistaking Rattigan's talent for depicting repressed emotion and tragicomic acts of concealment. Crucially, as in most of his writing, there is a gulf between what the characters say and the true feelings they are either unable or unwilling to express.
This disparity is palpable in the satisfying, detailed performances. James Purefoy's Kyle initially comes across as suave, but we can see that he aches with longing. Purefoy is especially adroit when suggesting the awkwardness of wartime bonhomie. Harry Hadden-Paton perfectly captures the back-slapping joviality of Teddy and the vulnerability that lurks behind it.
Mark Dexter, as a Polish flying officer who's also a count, sounds rather like Borat, but is sympathetic, particularly when he gives an account of an aborted mission. There's enjoyable support, too, from Clive Wood as the sturdy Squadron Leader, Joe Armstrong as plain-spoken gunner Dusty, and Emma Handy as his visiting wife who frets endlessly about missing her bus.
The best performance, though, comes from Sheridan Smith as the Count's wife Doris, once a barmaid. Always a warm presence, Smith radiates impish charm, but in her moments of doubt and sadness proves almost woundingly touching.
Sir Trevor's direction is lucid and scrupulously precise. While the play does not represent Rattigan at his very best, it's in its own quiet and slow way both devastating and uplifting, and this is as polished and potent an interpretation of it as one could wish to see.
Flare Path
Theatre Royal, Haymarket
Suffolk Street, Haymarket, SW1Y 4HT
