Deep Blue Sea Synopsis: A businessman sinks $200 million into a special project to help fight Alzheimer's disease. As part of this project, medical biologist Susan McAlester rather naughtily figures out a way to genetically enlarge shark brains, so that disease-battling enzymes can be harvested. Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is a furious, raw, and darkly comic portrait of two broken people fumbling in the dark towards the light. Not to be missed, this unique season of Danny and The Deep Blue Sea promises to challenge and engage by com-bining a much lauded script with skilfully improvised, minimalistic theatre.
Description
Terence Rattigan did not regard the text of The Deep Blue Sea as sacrosanct, and when problems were revealed during the rehearsal process, he revised his script, particularly the last act which was still falling short in spite of multiple rewrites.
Until 1968 it was necessary to submit any new stage play to the Lord Chamberlain’s Office (a department of the Royal Household) to receive a licence for public performance. The Lord Chamberlain received a pre-rehearsal draft of The Deep Blue Sea in early January 1952, and this version, with further corrections, was submitted later that month.
How does this version compare with early drafts of The Deep Blue Sea?
The first two acts are largely the same but Act 3 is significantly different. It is shorter and less repetitive, the order of scenes differs from Rattigan’s original sequence and Mr Miller persuading Hester to go on living has become a much more convincing confrontation.
What do the annotations show?
These annotations are not in Rattigan’s hand but they document the changes made during the rehearsal process. The melodramatic telephone call made by Hester at the start of Act 3 has been replaced with a different, incoming call in which Hester is obliged to maintain a façade of calm, conventional politeness, despite her mounting desperation. A version of this telephone conversation originally appeared later in the act (f. 71), but its removal strengthens the moment of understanding between Mr Miller and Hester directly preceding it.
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Were any further changes made?
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The Deep Blue Sea opened in Brighton on 4 February 1952 ahead of its London premiere on 6 March. Changes were still being made to the staging, if not the script itself, during the Brighton previews. In a telegram to his American agent, Rattigan reported that the last act had been improved, partly due to the performance of Peggy Ashcroft who played Hester:
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ENDING NOW MUCH LESS NEGATIVE AND DEPRESSING SINCE ASHCROFT HAS PLAYED LAST ACT WITH MORE RESERVES OF STRENGTH ALSO REARRANGEMENT OF BUSINESS AT FINAL CURTAIN HAS MADE MORE IMPORTANT SYMBOLISM OF LIGHTING GAS FIRE STOP[1]
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The play opened in New York at the end of 1952 with Margaret Sullavan as Hester. A number of Hester’s lines which had been cut for the English production were restored for Sullavan because she lacked Peggy Ashcroft’s skill at playing subtext.
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[1] Copy of telegram from Terence Rattigan to Harold Freedman, 9 February 1952. Terence Rattigan Papers, British Library Add MS 74357A, f. 127.