Trevor Nunn is to direct Sienna Miller in Terence Rattigan’s Flare Path in the first of a series of productions he will present as Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company. Opening on 10 March 2011 with previews from 4 March 2011 Flare Path is booking until 4 June 2011. Set and costumes are by Stephen Brimson Lewis. Flare Path is produced by Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions, Tom McKitterick and the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company in association with Act Productions Ltd. Further casting will be announced shortly as well as details of Trevor Nunn’s other productions.
It is 1942. At the Falcon Hotel, on the edge of an airfield in Lincolnshire, Teddy, a young bomber pilot is celebrating a reunion with his actress wife Patricia. Events take an unexpected turn, when Peter a famous heartthrob film star arrives, and an urgent bombing mission over Germany is ordered. As the night gives way to dawn, Patricia finds herself at the centre of a passionate conflict of love and loyalty as unpredictable as the war in the skies.
Flare Path was first performed in the West End at the Apollo Theatre in 1942. It is based on Rattigan’s own Bomber Command experiences when he served as a tail gunner during the Second World War. He later reworked Flare Path into a screenplay and in 1945 the re-titled The Way to the Stars starring Michael Redgrave was successfully released.