About the Play:

After the Dance is a full-length drama by Terence Rattigan. This tragic romance focuses on David Scott-Fowler and his wife Joan who revel in their hard-drinking, hard-partying lifestyle and maintain they married for amusement and not love. When a third figure comes into the equation the couple have to face the truth of their lives to disastrous consequence. After the Dance is a hilarious, heartbreaking and hauntingly beautiful play.

After the Dance is the story of a pair of former "bright young things" trapped in their hedonistic lifestyle. The play's action takes place on the eve of the Second World War in the drawing-room of the Scott-Fowlers' flat in Mayfair, a fashionable part of London. David Scott-Fowler is a would-be historian, suffering writer's block and lost in an alcoholic haze, his heavy drinking seriously affecting his health. His wife Joan maintains a carefree public face, and doesn't quite dare to reveal how much she loves him: after all, they married for fun, on a whim, when they were both "bright young things" – and passion wasn't part of the deal. When David falls into a relationship with the much-younger Helen, an idealist who is determined to 'save' him, events take a tragic turn. Terence Rattigan's masterpiece combines elements of tragedy with savage and at time raucous humour, examining the themes of love, aging and the capacity for people to change. After The Dance also showcases a range of extraordinary, larger than life characters the are engaging and enjoyable of audiences and actors alike. This edition includes an authoritative introduction, biographical sketch and chronology.

After the Dance premiered in 1939 at the St. James Theatre in London. Despite being a critical success, it was forced to close with the onset of war; however, a hugely successful 2010 revival at the National Theatre, starring by Benedict Cumberbatch and Nancy Carroll, brought it back to prominence, and garnered four Olivier Awards including Best Revival.

Cast: 5 female, 8 male, plus extras

What people say:

"A blast from the past: A revival of a rare Terence Rattigan play establishes ... After the Dance as a masterpiece equal to the The Winslow Boy or The Browning Version." — The Sunday Times

"One of the supreme dramatists of the 20th century." — The Guardian

"A harrowing critique of a period of heedless frivolity and a dazzling reminder of the strengths of Rattigan's writing." — Evening Standard

"A great and wonderful revelation... combines superb social comedy with shafts of powerful emotion." — The Telegraph

About the Playwright:

Sir Terence Rattigan (1911-1977) was a popular English dramatist who wrote some of the most memorable and important plays of the twentieth century. His plays are generally situated within an upper-middle-class background. He was that relative rarity among the ranks of playwrights: a major theatre author who was almost equally successful as a screenwriter, and one of a very few playwrights of his era privileged to adapt his own stage work to the screen on a regular basis.