Flare Path

Sir Trevor Nunn directs a new production of Flare Path to celebrate the centenary of the birth of its playwright, Terence Rattigan.

It is 1942. At the Falcon Hotel on the edge of an airfield in Lincolnside, Teddy, a young bomber pilot, is celebrating a reunion with his actress wife Patricia. Events take an unexpected turn with the arrival of Peter, a famous heartthrob film star, and the ordering of an urgent bombing mission over Germany. Soon Patricia finds herself at the centre of a passionate conflict of love and loyalty as unpredictable as the war in the skies.

Based on Rattigan's own experiences as a tail gunner during WW2, Flare Path was first performed at the Apollo theatre in 1942 and was made into a film in 1945. The playwright's other works include The Deep Blue Sea, Cause Celebre, After The Dance and The Browning Version.

Flare Path stars Sienna Miller, who returns to the stage for the first time since As You Like It in 2005. She is best known for her copious screen credits, including Layer Cake, Alfie, Casanova, Factory Girl, Stardust, The Edge Of Love, GI Joe and Yellow. 

Miller is directed in Flare Path by former National Theatre and RSC Artistic Director Nunn, whose vast body of work includes many award-winning plays and musicals in the West End. Recently his work has included A Little Night Music, Birdsong, Gone With The Wind and Inherit The Wind. Flare Path is Nunn's first production in his residency as Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company.

For more about Flare Path at the Theatre Royal Haymarket read the First Night Feature or Big Interview with Sheridan Smith.