JEAN (hotly). I don’t agree at all. I feel disgusted at what he’s done too, but I think I’m quite right to feel disgusted. I don’t consider myself prejudiced at all, and I think that people who behave like that are a public menace and deserve anything they get.
CHARLES. Your vehemence is highly suspect. I must have you psycho-analysed.
JEAN. It’s absolutely logical, Charles. Supposing your son –
CHARLES. I know. I know. Supposing in twenty or thirty years’ time some Major Pollock on an esplanade asks him for a light –
JEAN. Exactly (He laughs.) It’s not funny, Charles. How would you feel –
CHARLES. I hope he’d give him one and hop it. If he doesn’t it’ll be his look out.
JEAN. Charles, I think that’s absolutely monstrous [ – ]
Table Number Seven, Scene One
MISS MEACHAM. Why should I? I’ve been out of the world for far longer than any of you and what do I know about morals and ethics? Only what I read in novels, and as I only read thrillers, that isn’t worth much. In Peter Cheyney the hero does far worse things than the Major’s done – and nobody seems to mind.
MRS. RAILTON-BELL. I hardly think it’s the point what Peter Cheyney’s heroes do, Miss Meacham. We want your views on Major Pollock.
Terence Rattigan
Born in 1911, a scholar at Harrow and at Trinity College, Oxford, Terence Rattigan had his first long-running hit in the West End at the age of twenty-five: French Without Tears (1936). His next play, After the Dance (1939), opened to euphoric reviews yet closed under the gathering clouds of war, but with Flare Path (1942) Rattigan embarked on an almost unbroken series of successes, with most plays running in the West End for at least a year and several making the transition to Broadway: While the Sun Shines (1943), Love in Idleness (1944), The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (performed in double-bill with Harlequinade, 1948), Who is Sylvia? (1950), The Deep Blue Sea (1952), The Sleeping Prince (1953) and Separate Tables (1954). From the mid-fifties, with the advent of the ‘Angry Young Men’, he enjoyed less success on stage, though Ross (1960) and In Praise of Love (1973) were well received. As well as seeing many of his plays turned into successful films, Rattigan wrote a number of original plays for television from the fifties onwards. He was knighted in 1971 and died in 1977.
A Nick Hern Book
This edition of Separate Tables first published as a paperback original in Great Britain in 1999 by Nick Hern Books, The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road, London W12 8QP by arrangment with Methuen. Separate Tables was included in Volume Three of The Collected Plays of Terence Rattigan published in 1964 by Hamish Hamilton
This ebook edition first published in 2014
Copyright © Trustees of the Terence Rattigan Trust 1964
Introduction copyright © Dan Rebellato 1999
Front cover photo copyright © Hulton Deutsch Collection
Typeset by Country Setting. Kingsdown, Kent CT14 8ES
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 78001 359 6 (ebook edition)
ISBN 978 1 85459 424 2 (print edition)
CAUTION This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
All rights whatsoever in these plays are strictly reserved. Requests to reproduce the plays in whole or in part should be addressed to Nick Hern Books, The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road, London W12 8QP, tel 44 (0) 20 8749 4953, e-mail [email protected].
Applications for professional performance worldwide in any medium or for translation into any language should be addressed to the author’s sole agent, Michael Imison Playwrights Limited, Alan Brodie Representation, Paddock Suite, The Courtyard, 55a Charterhouse Street, London EC1M 6HA; for amateur stage performance in the English language throughout the world (with the exception of the USA and Canada) apply to Samuel French Ltd, 52 Fitzroy Street, London W1P 6JR; and for amateur and stock performances in the USA and Canada apply to Samuel French Inc., 235 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003.
Separate Tables Page 16