Terence Rattigan, The Deep Blue Sea

Wendy Pollard (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication Mar 1952

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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Terence Rattigan’s

The Deep Blue Sea

opened in London in March 1952 to a mixed critical reception; however, it ran for 513 performances, an exceptional run at the time for a new, serious play, and, by the time of its first television performance in 1954, was acclaimed by the critic Peter Forster as “the best post-war English play”. However, the reactions of some of the original reviewers to the way in which Rattigan handled the theme of post-war adjustment, while making a woman the central protagonist, reveal how venturesome Terence Rattigan had been in this play.

The daily newspapers in which the reviews appeared differed from today’s in one major aspect: in common with many other items, seven years after the end of the Second World War newsprint was still subject to rationing.

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2955 words

Citation: Pollard, Wendy. "The Deep Blue Sea". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 July 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=30017, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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