The Orpen Players next production, running from 15th – 17th May, is The Deep Blue Sea by Terrence Rattigan.  Starting at 8pm each day, doors open at 7:30pm, tickets cost £6 for the Thursday and £7 for the Friday & Saturday performances.  Tickets can be bought either from:

• Roger Milne – 241048;
• Orpen Players’ website at www.orpenplayers.co.uk;
• Ash’s Store (from 3rd May); and
• On the door (subject t availability).

Supper & Show

For more of an evening out  dine at the Treble Tile before the performance from selected menu + show ticket for £20 per head – must be booked in advance with the Treble Tile 01206 241712.

Plot summary

The Deep Blue Sea begins with the discovery by her neighbours of Hester Collyer who has tried and failed to commit suicide.  Some time before, she left her husband, a respectable High Court Judge, for a semi-alcoholic former RAF pilot, Freddy Page.  The relationship was physical and passionate but his ardour has cooled, leaving her emotionally stranded and desperate.  The aftershocks of her attempted suicide unravel even the remnants of this relationship, but by the end she is brought to a hard decision to live, partly through the intercession of another resident of the tenement house, Mr. Miller, an ex-doctor, struck off for what seems to have been a homosexual offence.  These two outcasts, socially ostracised for their ‘excessive’ loves, find a curious and moving kinship.

An actor, who played Freddy recently had this to say:

It’s a play about love and lust. But also about what it was like to live after the war. Freddy was a Spitfire pilot in World War II. He came out of that a war hero and worked as a test pilot, but lost his nerve and hit the bottle. Before we join the play he’s met Hester and pours his heart out to her at a time when people were very closed up. We join them at the nadir of their relationship.

Source: Wikipedia.