{"id":341560,"date":"2011-03-27T07:20:53","date_gmt":"2011-03-27T07:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/03\/27\/cause-celebre-a-rattigan-revival\/"},"modified":"2011-03-27T07:20:53","modified_gmt":"2011-03-27T07:20:53","slug":"cause-celebre-a-rattigan-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/27\/cause-celebre-a-rattigan-revival\/","title":{"rendered":"Cause celebre: A Rattigan revival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \t\t
\n 27 March 2011<\/span>
\nLast updated at <\/span>03:20 ET<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t \t \t\t \t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Tim Masters<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\tEntertainment and arts correspondent, BBC News <\/span>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

In her first stage role since Saint Joan at the National in 2007, Anne-Marie Duff takes the lead role in Terence Rattigan’s final play, Cause Celebre. <\/p>\n

“We’re lucky, us girls,” says Anne-Marie Duff, when we meet in her dressing room at the Old Vic during previews week. “Rattigan tends to use women in a brilliant way.” <\/p>\n

Celebrations for Rattigan’s centenary year have included several major revivals, including The Deep Blue Sea at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. A previously unseen Rattigan play, Less Than Kind, was also staged in January. <\/p>\n

\n\tContinue reading the main story<\/a>\t<\/p>\n

\u201cStart Quote<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n

You’re getting a real bite of the Rattigan apple.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

End Quote<\/span>
\n\tAnne-Marie Duff<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

“Sometimes when there’s a writer in vogue, you’ll get four productions of, say, The Glass Menagerie around the country,” says Duff. “That’s a shame, because it dilutes the effect, but this way you’re getting a real bite of the Rattigan apple.”<\/p>\n

In Cause Celebre – as in Saint Joan – Duff plays a woman on trial.<\/p>\n

In this case it is the real-life character Alma Rattenbury, who was in the dock in 1935 with her 18-year-old lover for violently killing her husband. Alma’s fate is in the hands of a sexually-repressed jury forewoman, Edith Davenport, played by Niamh Cusack. <\/p>\n

Rattigan attended the West End premiere of his play in July 1977 in poor health. He died four months later at his home in Bermuda.<\/p>\n

Cause Celebre started life as a radio play two years earlier. “I suppose that’s what makes it feel on a first reading like a screenplay,” says Duff.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the language is more explicit than in his other work, especially the way the boys talk about sex. What happens to Edith’s son Tony is discussed in a way which wouldn’t have happened in The Deep Blue Sea.”<\/p>\n

‘Middle aged nympho’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Does he write well for women? <\/p>\n

“He does. You’re not just a wife, a mother, a wrong ‘un. They are fully fleshed-out characters. I think he likes women, I think he understood us in an innate way. I’m not sure that he would have said he did.”<\/p>\n

I point out that Alma Rattenbury is described at one point in the play as “a middle-aged nympho dipso”.<\/p>\n

“She’s an extraordinary woman,” chuckles Duff, “she has a lot of fire in her belly and she gets burnt. She’s talked about all the time. It’s interesting when you’re playing a character who’s always on stage even when you’re not.”<\/p>\n

Cause Celebre is directed by Thea Sharrock, whose production of Rattigan’s After The Dance at the National last year won four Olivier Awards earlier this month.<\/p>\n

“She’s a phenomenally relaxed, brilliant director,” says Duff, who is working with Sharrock for the first time. <\/p>\n

Duff was sent the Cause Celebre script while she was taking time out after having a baby last year (with her husband, actor James McAvoy).<\/p>\n

“Thea was already on board. I hadn’t worked for a while, and it was like nothing I’ve ever been asked to do before, and that’s a priority for me.”<\/p>\n

Among Duff’s best-known TV roles are Fiona in Channel 4’s Shameless (2005) as well as her lead role in Elizabeth -The Virgin Queen (2007). Film credits include The Last Station and Nowhere Boy.<\/p>\n

But Duff has no doubt about the important influence of Shameless on her career path. <\/p>\n

“It was the first time I’d been in anything that was a commercial success. I’d worked very happily on projects up until then, but in terms of commercial profile, it changed things.<\/p>\n

“Ironically, all the classical theatre work I did didn’t get me Virgin Queen. Shameless did.”<\/p>\n

Cause Celebre by Terence Rattigan opens at The Old Vic on Tuesday 29 March, and runs until 11 June. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n

View original post here:
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