Cause Celebre was Terence Rattigan's final play, staged in 1977 as he was dying, and Thea Sharrock's revival of this neglected work is a key part of the celebrations of his centenary.
The play draws inspiration from a scandalous trial of the Thirties, and provides Anne-Marie Duff with a vividly tragic role. She gives a performance of shimmering intensity as Alma Rattenbury, a glamorous former songwriter who, bored with her dusty husband, becomes infatuated with George, her young chauffeur.
The obsession consumes George, too, and results in the murder of Mr Rattenbury. The crime is never in doubt - we hear about it in the play's opening line - but there is uncertainty over who should bear responsibility for it, and the action switches suggestively between the burgeoning of forbidden desire and the courtroom drama to which it ultimately leads.
Alma is at first a blend of flirtatiousness and patrician poise, yet grows desperate and muted. Equally intriguing is Edith Davenport (a suitably
brittle Niamh Cusack), the genteel reactionary who becomes foreman of the trial jury, having initially claimed she could not serve because of "a deep prejudice against that woman".
Rattigan uses the two women's contrasting philosophies, as well as the morbid escapism of Edith's son Tony (Freddie Fox), to portray a variety of stifling and very English attitudes to passion and morality. He is perceptive about hypocrisy, the manipulative effects of the media and the subtle mechanisms of social class. But the play, originally written for radio, has little theatrical dynamism. Too many of the characters - notably George (Tommy McDonnell) - feel like sketches instead of rounded creations.
Most are in any case unsympathetic.
There is assured work from the supporting cast; Lucy Robinson impresses as Edith's shallow sister Stella, and Nicholas Jones is gloriously dry as Alma's barrister. Yet the production lacks real piquancy. Sharrock directs clinically, and there's not enough sense of urgency and ardour.
Matters aren't helped by a design that proves technically ingenious but rather ugly. The domestic interiors appear cavernous and bleak, and even though the stage has been extended into the audience, the action seems remote. A powerful finale and the quality of Duff and Cusack can't obscure the fact that this is not Rattigan at his most eloquently anguished. Until June 11.
Information 0844 871 7628.
Cause Celebre
Old Vic
The Cut, SE1 8NB
