It is quite something to watch a play when you don't know the plot, especially one such as Terrence Rattigan's classic The Deep Blue Sea. And one as brilliantly arranged and performed as this National Theatre production; the camera on this live transmission is up close and personal. This is an intelligent, thoughtful and intimate representation of a woman who cannot accept that the intensity of her love cannot be reciprocated. Her new man Freddie does love her in his way and is completely faithful, but that is not enough for Hester. Her failed suicide attempt is not a cry for help but more a cry of exasperation.
At the centre is a fantastic performance from Helen McCrory. The critics have described her Hester as many things, but for me it was her a fierce charm and manipulative cleverness that made her so dangerous to know. She could even make her besotted ex-husband, a judge no less, feel small. The director Carrie Cracknell (reunited with McCrory after their amazing Medea) has set the play exactly as Rattigan wrote it: in 1952. The clipped accents never let you forget where we are. The set is quite extraordinary. Instead of the claustrophobic one room of a kitchen sink drama from that decade, the Lyttelton stage is opened up with one apartment on top of the other.
As for the performances, Helen McCrory is at her superlative best. I also liked Peter Sullivan as not quite yet ex husband Sir William Collyer. However it was Nick Fletcher as neighbour Mr Miller that was outstanding. Not a big role, but he was devastatingly measured on stage. I thought Tom Burke as Hester's lover Freddie was a bit of a let down but Marion Bailey as Mrs Elton was terrific. However it is McCrory who will hoover up the awards.
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