Reviews round-up for The Deep Blue Sea at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket starring Tamsin Greig [Updated]

"A five-star triumph"

"Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea is a work of genius. Inside its well-made frame, it holds such intense feeling. It’s like a pearl filled with lava, its shiny surface containing a seething heart. This revival, starring Tamsin Greig... understands the tensions that lie within it. It is both decorous and deeply sad, a study of the inequality and unfairness of passion that is both utterly gripping and entirely truthful."

"Director Lindsay Posner offers a straightforward but sensitive production, designed by Peter McKintosh in an all too convincing boarding house"

"Greig makes you feel every ounce of Hester’s desperation"

"You could hear a pin drop in the auditorium throughout. It’s a terrific production that reveals the extraordinary power in this slightly old-fashioned play that has outlasted many more modish works."

"Tamsin Greig is shatteringly good"

"Terence Rattigan’s 1952 tragedy of quiet desperation is as potent as ever"

"Though Hester’s story is the epicentre of sadness, Lindsay Posner’s finely-wrought revival also shows us the wreckage of the husband, Bill (Nicholas Farrell) and the neglectful lover, Freddie (Hadley Fraser)."

"Rattigan was supposed to have been swept away with Noel Coward by John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger in 1956, wasn’t he? Actually, The Deep Blue Sea feels fresher now than that kitchen sink drama, and in some ways anticipated its portrait of an impossible coupling in straitened circumstances."

"When she [Hester] masters her anguish, her tongue has a sardonic, scolding edge. This is something Greig excels at, the blending of wit, rage and hurt, and it’s tremendous to see her back on form"

"Fraser is also very good. He shows us Freddie’s charm as well as his blithe carelessness and he’s very convincing as a drunk."

"Tamsin Greig gives an exquisite, aching performance in The Deep Blue Sea"

"Terence Rattigan’s portrait of stifled desire is sensitively played at the Theatre Royal Haymarket"

"Greig catches subtly the fight going on inside Hester... Greig finds every ounce of comedy in Hester’s mordant wit."

"Hadley Fraser brings an edge of recklessness to Freddie, a former RAF ace whose “life stopped in 1940”, who dare not let himself feel too much and who is drowning himself in whisky. There’s a gently eloquent performance too from Nicholas Farrell as Hester’s quietly heartbroken husband, the third casualty of the overwhelming passion that has seized his wife."

"On Peter McKintosh’s muted blue set, Posner’s production is understated — too understated at times: audibility is an issue that needs addressing. But it’s a delicate, sensitive revival of Rattigan’s compassionate masterpiece."

"Tamsin Greig honours Terence Rattigan"

"The 1952 classic lives to see another day in notably name-heavy revival"

"Lindsay Posner's production, first seen in Bath with one major change of cast since then, takes its time, and leading lady Tamsin Greig often speaks in a stage whisper requiring you to lean into the words. (This is that rare production that, praise be, is unamplified.)"

"The star attraction amidst a notably name-heavy cast is the wonderful Greig, marking her second London play this year"

"Tamsin Greig is terrific, but often inaudible"

"This West End Rattigan revival, much praised at the tiny Ustinov theatre in Bath, has virtues aplenty but the lack of vocal welly is a big problem"

"This revival, much praised at the tiny Ustinov theatre in Bath, has virtues aplenty but it hasn’t scaled up fully now it is in the grander Theatre Royal Haymarket. So sometimes you think Tamsin Greig is giving a wondrous central turn as a woman paying a stiff price for pursuing passion. And sometimes you long for her to speak up a bit."

"All of which is an awful shame because I’ve never seen a Hester whose depression is so tenderly drawn, one so vividly mixing her vicar’s daughter good manners with something bible-black inside. And Greig’s comic timing is as world-class as ever."

"The arrival of Hadley Fraser as Hester’s bluff-cover lover Freddie perked us all up, partly because of his booming tones, partly because of subtler skills."

"Lindsay Posner’s production, set amid the genteel decay of Peter McKintosh’s set, can still make you gasp, or laugh, or both at once. And Greig’s Hester, still deploying a lifetime of charm even as she gazes into the abyss, is so nearly something special."

"Tamsin Greig is grounded and nuanced"

"Tamsin Greig’s striking and subtle central performance elevates this uneven production of Rattigan’s classic"

"Telling the story of a destructive affair, Terence Rattigan’s stinging 1952 drama is a sensitively observed classic, underserved by this stiff, overly mannered production."

"The cast is uneven, sometimes struggling to make the prim, formal dialogue of the period feel fluid and natural. In the central role as broken-hearted Hester, Tamsin Greig gives a grounded, nuanced performance, finding believable need and vulnerability in a character who is obsessively, pathetically devoted to a man who cannot return her affections."

"Meanwhile, Finbar Lynch steals the show as struck-off doctor Miller, repeatedly dropping in to offer medical aid and brutal, unvarnished romantic advice."

"Tale of romantic regret hidden by veil of primness"

"... for its emotional agonies to really torture us, I was hoping for a more intimate atmosphere than is provided by Lindsay Posner's respectable production, first seen in Bath last year."

"As ever, Greig is a powerful stage presence, catching Hester's shame and anguish at being abandoned by her pusillanimous playboy squeeze, Freddie (Hadley Fraser)... But the scene where she polishes Freddie's shoes, before he leaves her forever, feels more like a compliant mother seeing her son off to school than desperate self-abasement."

"But our brave new world has little or no sense of the social costs that shape Hester's moral dilemmas. A more intimate staging might have helped us feel her pain more sharply."

"Tamsin Greig gives a solid turn in Terence Rattigan’s timelessly affecting masterpiece"

"The tried and sometimes true conveyor belt between Bath Theatre Royal to Theatre Royal Haymarket continues rumble on, bringing big old fashioned productions of big old fashioned plays with big name actors."

"As for this, it isn’t bad at all. Even though there’s nothing wrong with the direction by Lindsay Posner (who also did A View From the Bridge in a similarly perfectly good way) or the rundown set by Peter McKintosh, or the day-to-night lighting by Paul Pyant, not much particularly stands out either. It all does the job – all gets out of the way of the play, and maybe that’s the best thing. Let the play speak for itself."

"... while Greig finds a few shattering moments – and it’s great to see her go to some extreme places in her sadness and her ferocity – her Hester lacks unity. She plays every interaction on its own terms: now comic, now tragic, now sharp or desperate. The result is a hundred Hesters rather than one."

"There isn’t a note wrong from Hadley Fraser as roguish Freddy, seducer of Hester, who loves her but makes her miserable and drinks too much. Fraser’s got such incredible presence."

Read reviews for this production at the Theatre Royal Bath

★★★★★ "Devastatingly performed" - The Stage
★★★★ "Tamsin Greig’s Rattigan revival is claustrophobic and needle-sharp" - The Telegraph
★★★★ "Tamsin Greig is lacerating in this love triangle" - The Times
★★★★ "Tamsin Greig adds bite to Terence Rattigan" - The Guardian