A celebrity-backed campaign to rename a West End theatre after British playwright Terence Rattigan is stepping up pressure on London theatre owners.

David Suchet, Judi Dench, Hugh Bonneville, Sienna Miller and David Hare are a few of the names who have joined calls for Nimax Theatres to rename their Duchess Theatre the Terence Rattigan Theatre, in honour of the successful playwright of The Deep Blue Sea, The Winslow Boy, Flare Path, Man and Boy, and more.

A number of articles in The Telegraph over the last few months, and a report yesterday in The Times and opinion piece by their critic Clive Davis, have all covered the Terence Rattigan Society’s push to have a West End theatre renamed for the playwright, who was acclaimed in the 1940s for his well-made plays, but then ridiculed in the late 50s following the generation of ‘Angry Young Men’ playwrights.

Sir David Suchet, who is president of the Society, told the Times: “This caused Terry enormous pain. He was a very sensitive man and he was being criticised by his own profession … telling him he’s rubbish, twee, old-fashioned and no longer relevant. I would like to think he could be celebrated like Harold Pinter. I think that Terry, with his canon of work, needs to be celebrated.”

Honouring Rattigan with a West End theatre would be a justified move, and the playwright is having a small renaissance at the moment, with The Deep Blue Sea starring Tamsin Greig opening tomorrow at the Theatre Royal Haymarket; and a revival of Man and Boy set to star Ben Daniels at the National Theatre.

That is, until you consider that out of the 50+ West End theatres that are part of the Society of London Theatre, only one is directly named after a woman: the Gillian Lynne Theatre, renamed by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 2018.

However, 11 West End theatres are directly named after men: the Garrick, Gielgud, Harold Pinter, Noel Coward, Novello, Sondheim, Wyndham’s, Sam Wananmaker, and National Theatre’s Olivier, Lyttelton and Dorfman Theatres.

There are also four more theatres with male royal titles, the Duke of York’s Theatre, His Majesty’s Theatre, Prince Edward Theatre, and Prince of Wales Theatre; and only one, the Duchess Theatre, with a female title (the irony of wanting to rename one of the only theatres that is named after a woman, with a man, is not lost on us).

Women’s contributions to the West End, as playwrights, actors, directors and creatives, have been consistently overlooked for as long as the West End has existed. If there is any renaming to be done in the next few years, surely it should be as tributes to these women of the West End?

Dame Judi Dench may have joined the call for a Terence Rattigan Theatre, but should she be a prime candidate for getting her own West End theatre?

First published 6 May 2025; Updated 7 May 2025

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Main photo: The Deep Blue Sea. Tamsin Greig as Hester Collyer. Photo by Manuel Harlan

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