31. ‘Yes!—A Woman’s A Two-Face,’ Daily Express. (27 September 1954); Iris Ashley, ‘Hello Folks!’ Daily Mail. (15 November 1954). Articles to be found in the Production File for Separate Tables. St James’s Theatre. 22 September 1954, in the Theatre Museum, London.
32. Reviews quoted from Wansell, op. cit., pp. 278, 280. Many thanks to David Travis and Ginny Bull for information about American productions.
33. American critic, Susan Rusinko, calls it ‘Rattigan’s major drama’. Terence Rattigan. English Authors, 366. Boston: Twayne, 1983, p. 93.
34. Reviews quoted from the Production File for Separate Tables. Apollo Theatre. 17 January 1977, in the Theatre Museum, London.
35. Reviews quoted from Theatre Record, xiii, 14 (24 July 1993), pp. 765-770.
36. Reviews quoted from Theatre Record, xviii 7 (27 April 1998), pp. 415-417.
List of Rattigan’s Produced Plays
TITLE
BRITISH PREMIERE
NEW YORK PREMIERE
First Episode (with Philip Heimann)
Q Theatre, Kew, 11 Sept 1933 (transferred to Comedy Theatre, 26 Jan 1934
Ritz Theatre, 17 Sept 1934
French Without Tears
Criterion Theatre, 6 Nov 1936
Henry Miller Theatre, 28 Sept 1937
After the Dance
St James’s Theatre, 21 June 1939
Follow My Leader (with Anthony Maurice, alias Tony Goldschmidt)
Apollo Theatre, 16 Jan 1940
Grey Farm (with Hector Bolitho)
Hudson Theatre, 3 May 1940
Flare Path
Apollo Theatre, 13 Aug 1932
Henry Miller Theatre, 23 Dec 1942
While the Sun Shines
Globe Theatre, 24 Dec 1943
Lyceum Theatre, 19 Sept 1944
Love in Idleness
Lyric Theatre, 20 Dec 1944
Empire Theatre (as O Mistress Mine), 23 Jan 1946
The Winslow Boy
Lyric Theatre, 23 May 1946
Empire Theatre, 29 Oct 1947
Playbill (The Browning Version and Harlequinade)
Phoenix Theatre, 8 Sept 1948
Coronet Theatre, 12 Oct 1949
Adventure Story
St James’s Theatre, 17 March 1949
A Tale of Two Cities (from Charles Dickens, with John Gielgud)
St Brendan’s College Dramatic Society, Clifton, 23 Jan 1950
Who is Sylvia?
Criterion Theatre, 24 Oct 1950
Final Test (TV)
BBC TV, 29 July 1951
The Deep Blue Sea
Duchess Theatre, 6 Mar 1952
Morosco Theatre, 5 Nov 1952
The Sleeping Prince
Phoenix Theatre, 5 Nov 1953
Coronet Theatre, 1 Nov 1956
Seperate Tables (The Table by the Window and Table Number Seven)
St James’s Theatre, 22 Sept 1954
Music Box Theatre, 25 Oct 1956
Variation on a Theme
Globe Theatre, 8 May 1958
Ross
Theatre Royal Haymarket 12 May 1960
Eugene O’Neill Theatre 26 Dec 1961
Joie de Vivre (with Robert Stolz and Paul Dehn)
Queen’s Theatre, 14 July 1960
Heart to Heart (TV)
BBC TV, 6 Dec 1962
Man and Boy
Queen’s Theatre, 4 Sept 1963
Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 12 Nov 1963
Ninety Years On (TV)
BBC TV, 29 Nov 1964
Nelson – A Portrait in Miniature (TV)
Associated Television, 21 Mar 1966
All On Her Own (TV) (adapted for the stage as Duologue)
BBC 2, 25 Sept 1968
A Bequest to the Nation
Theatre Royal Haymarket 23 Sept 1970
High Summer (TV)
Thames TV, 12 Sept 1972
In Praise of Love (After Lydia and Before Dawn)
Duchess Theatre, 27 Sept 1973
Morosco Theatre, 10 Dec 1974
Cause Célèbre (radio)
BBC Radio 4, 27 Oct 1975
Duologue
King’s Head Theatre, 21 Feb 1976
Cause Célèbre (stage)
Her Majesty’s Theatre, 4 July 1977
Less Than Kind
Jermyn Street Theatre, 20 January 2011
TO MY MOTHER
Editor’s Note
Separate Tables exists in two different versions,
as explained in the Introduction.
The text that follows is the ‘standard’ version,
which first appeared in Rattigan’s Collected Plays
and has formed the basis of all subsequent editions.
Where a passage exists in a variant version,
it appears in bold.
The variant version is printed in an appendix
at the end of the play.
Separate Tables was first produced at the St. James’s Theatre, London, on 22 September 1954, with the following cast:
TABLE BY THE WINDOW
MABEL
Marion Fawcett
LADY MATHESON
Jane Eccles
MRS. RAILTON-BELL
Phyllis Neilson-Terry
MISS MEACHAM
May Hallatt
DOREEN
Priscilla Morgan
MR. FOWLER
Aubrey Mather
MRS. SHANKLAND
Margaret Leighton
MISS COOPER
Beryl Measor
MR. MALCOLM
Eric Portman
CHARLES STRATTON
Basil Henson
JEAN TANNER
Patricia Raine
TABLE NUMBER SEVEN
JEAN STRATTON
Patricia Raine
CHARLES STRATTON
Basil Henson
MAJOR POLLOCK
Eric Portman
MR. FOWLER
Aubrey Mather
MISS COOPER
Beryl Measor
MRS. RAILTON-BELL
Phyllis Neilson-Terry
MISS RAILTON-BELL
Margaret Leighton
LADY MATHESON
Jane Eccles
MISS MEACHAM
May Hallatt
MABEL
Marion Fawcett
DOREEN
Priscilla Morgan
The plays directed by Peter Glenville
Decor by Michael Weight
The action of both plays takes place in the Lounge and Dining-Room of the Beauregard Private Hotel, near Bournemouth.
TABLE BY THE WINDOW
Characters
in order of speaking
MABEL
LADY MATHESON
MRS. RAILTON-BELL
MISS MEACHAM
DOREEN
MR. FOWLER
MRS. SHANKLAND
MISS COOPER
MR. MALCOLM
CHARLES STRATTON
JEAN TANNER
Time: Winter.
Scene One: Dining-Room. Dinner.
Scene Two: Lounge. After Dinner.
Scene Three: Dining-Room. Breakfast.
Scene One
Scene: the dining-room of the Beauregard Private Hotel, near Bournemouth. It is small, rather bare and quite unpretentious. A door at back leads into the lounge, a swing door upstage right into the kitchen, and another downstage right into the hall and the rest of the hotel. Windows, left, are curtained at the moment, for it is a winter evening, about seven o’clock, and the guests are at dinner.
Each sits at a small separate table, except for a young couple, CHARLES STRATTON and JEAN TANNER, who, as mere transients, occupy a table together in a corner of the room, not garnished, as are the other tables, with the bottles of medicine and favourite pickles and other idiosyncratic personal accessories of the permanent residents. Surprisingly, for they are an attractive-looking pair, CHARLES and JEAN are paying no attention to each other at all, and each is av
idly reading a book propped up on the flower vase between them.
Prominently placed, and indeed a rather prominent-looking person altogether, is MRS. RAILTON-BELL. All the ladies (except JEAN who wears slacks) always change ‘into something’ for dinner, but MRS. RAILTON-BELL always changes into something much grander than the others. All the ladies (except JEAN) wear fur stoles, but MRS. RAILTON-BELL wears silver foxes. All the ladies (except JEAN) wear some small items of jewellery, but MRS. RAILTON-BELL’s are far less small than the others.
MISS MEACHAM sits near her, reading (very close to her unspectacled eyes) a copy of ‘Racing Up To Date’. Although much the same age as MRS. RAILTON-BELL (about sixty-five) she is dressed in a far more sprightly fashion, but has not succeeded in looking any younger.
LADY MATHESON, a Civil Servant’s widow, living on an annuity and therefore the poorest of all the residents, sits close by, a grey-faced, mousy, impeccably dressed woman, rather younger than the other two. MR. FOWLER, ex-public-school master, quiet and impassive-looking, sits further away.
The table by the window is unoccupied – as is another towards the centre of the room and close to MRS. RAILTON-BELL.
Two waitresses, one middle-aged (MABEL) the other young (DOREEN), serve the various tables. MABEL is taciturn, gloomy and dependable. DOREEN is flighty, talkative and undependable. At the moment only MABEL is visible. She is serving LADY MATHESON.
MABEL. Were you medaillon or goulash?
LADY MATHESON (correctly accenting). Medaillon.
MABEL. Sorry. I thought you were goulash.
She stumps with the unwanted goulash to the kitchen door.
LADY MATHESON. It was probably my fault.
MABEL (gloomily). I dare say.
She passes on to MISS MEACHAM.
Now, you were goulash, weren’t you, Miss Meacham?
MISS MEACHAM (deep in her book). What? Oh yes, Mabel. Thank you.
MABEL (serving her). And what to follow – the mousse angelic, or the turnover?
MISS MEACHAM. Which do you think?
MABEL. Turnover.
MISS MEACHAM. Turnover, then.
MABEL drifts away.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. I think cook’s acquiring a little lighter touch with her pastry, don’t you think?
MISS MEACHAM. Not judging by the tarts we had at tea yesterday. Cannon-balls.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. Did you think so? I quite liked them. I much preferred them to those pink cakes on Tuesday.
MISS MEACHAM. I didn’t mind the pink cakes. The tarts gave me the collywobbles. I had the most terrible dreams.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL (with a faint smile). I thought you were always having dreams.
MISS MEACHAM. Oh, these weren’t my proper dreams. Not the ones I make myself dream. These were just horrible, pointless nightmares. Cosh boys and things. (After a slight pause.) I talked to Louis XV on Thursday night.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL (plainly humouring her). Did you indeed, dear?
MISS MEACHAM. The goulash’s rather good. I think you made a mistake.
She goes back to her book. There is a silence for a few moments while MISS MEACHAM peruses her ‘Racing Up To Date’ with myopic concentration.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. Think you’ve found a winner for tomorrow, Miss Meacham?
MISS MEACHAM. Well, according to this form book, Marston Lad is worth a bob or two each way.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. I never bet nowadays. (After a meditative pause.) When my husband was alive he used sometimes to put as much as five pounds on a horse for me.
MISS MEACHAM (looking up). I used to bet in ponies when my father was alive, and I had an allowance.
She goes back to her ‘Racing Up To Date’.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL (suddenly irritable). Why don’t you get spectacles?
MISS MEACHAM lowers her book.
MISS MEACHAM. Because I don’t need them.
She goes back to her book again. DOREEN, the other waitress, has come in and is now hovering over MR. FOWLER.
DOREEN. Sorry, Mr. Fowler, the goulash’s off.
MR. FOWLER looks up abstractedly.
MR. FOWLER. What? Oh. What about the cold pie?
DOREEN. I shouldn’t have that, if I were you. I saw what went into it. If I were you I’d have the tongue –
MR. FOWLER. All right. Whatever you say.
DOREEN disappears into the kitchen.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL (to LADY MATHESON, meaningly). She won’t last.
LADY MATHESON. I’m afraid not.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. Still, it’s disgraceful that the goulash’s off, and two people not even in yet.
LADY MATHESON. I know.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. Of course Mr. Malcolm’s never on time, (She indicates the table by the window.) and really deserves it. (In another confidential whisper.) Anyway, after those long sessions at the Feathers I often wonder if he ever really knows what he’s eating. But the new lady (She indicates the other unoccupied table.) – I mean, my dear, what will she think?
LADY MATHESON. I saw her arrive.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. Did you?
LADY MATHESON. Did you?
MRS. RAILTON-BELL (slightly annoyed). I was in the lounge, but I didn’t – excuse me – think it quite the thing to peer out of the window at her –
LADY MATHESON (firmly). I happened to be in the hall.
MISS MEACHAM. I met her on the stairs.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. Really, dear?
MISS MEACHAM (still absorbed in her book). She’s called Mrs. Shankland. She comes from London, she arrived by train, she has four suitcases and a hatbox and she’s staying two weeks.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL (unwillingly impressed). Four suitcases?
MISS MEACHAM. And a hatbox.
LADY MATHESON. She was awfully smartly dressed. Nothing flashy – very good taste – but – well – Mayfair, if you know what I mean.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. Really? (Changing the subject from this unwelcome topic.) It was quite nice out this afternoon, didn’t you think, dear – I mean, for December?
LADY MATHESON. I didn’t go out, I’m afraid. There was a Sibelius concert on the Home –
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. You and your music. Did you go out, Mr. Fowler?
MR. FOWLER. What? No, I didn’t. I was waiting for a telephone call.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. I was the only brave one then? Fancy.
She breaks off abruptly as the door from the hall opens and MRS. SHANKLAND (ANNE), the new arrival, comes in. She is about forty, and, as she stands just inside the room looking around rather timidly, she seems entirely out of place in such an environment. Not that her clothes are unsuitable, although they are smart, nor that her coiffure is too stylish, although it is stylish, but that she has brought on with her an air of Belgravia and the smarter London restaurants. She stands now as if waiting for a head waiter to guide her to her table. None of the other guests glance at her. MABEL, who is serving MISS MEACHAM with her turnover, turns and sees her.
MABEL. You’re the new one, aren’t you?
ANNE. Yes.
MABEL. You’re here.
She points to the table in the centre.
ANNE. Oh. Thank you.
She goes to the table and sits down. Dead silence still reigns. MABEL hands her a menu and, while she is studying it, eyes begin to cast quick, furtive glances in her direction.
MABEL. The brown windsor or the petite marmite?
ANNE. I don’t think I’ll have any soup, thank you. I’ll try the goulash.
MABEL. That’s right. We’ve got a portion left.
MR. FOWLER glares furiously at MABEL as she goes past him to the kitchen, but decides not to make a scene. Eyes are lowered again as ANNE looks curiously round the room. The silence continues until it is at length broken by MRS RAILTON-BELL, speaking now in a rather louder and more self-consciously well-bred voice than before.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL (to LADY MATHESON). I was saying about the weather in December –
LADY MATHESON. Oh yes?
<
br /> MRS. RAILTON-BELL. It can be so treacherous, especially here, on the south coast. This afternoon, for instance, even though the sun was quite bright, I put on a fur coat – my warmest one too – the Persian Lamb.
LADY MATHESON. Very sensible of you.
The two young people rise abruptly and make for the lounge door, each carrying their book. They have still, as far as we can see, not addressed a word to each other. MRS. RAILTON-BELL eyes them with disdain.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. Trousers at dinner!
LADY MATHESON. I know.
MRS RAILTON-BELL. And he never changes either. I wonder Miss Cooper doesn’t say something. You’d think they’d teach them better manners at Oxford.
LADY MATHESON. Yes, you would. (After a slight pause.) My husband was at Oxford.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL (gently). Yes, dear. You’ve told me so before. Mine only went to Birmingham because of the wonderful engineering course they have there. He hated it, of course.
MISS COOPER has come in and is crossing the room towards ANNE. She is youngish, with a rather masculine appearance and a quiet manner.
Separate Tables Page 6