About the Play:

Cause Celebre is a full-length drama by Terence Rattigan. Part social drama, part courtroom epic, the events, seen largely through the eyes of a formidable lady juror, are based on a sensational 1930s British murder trial concerning an elderly architect allegedly killed by his much younger wife Alma and George, their handsome 18-year-old chauffeur. Both Alma and George take the blame; one was found guilty.

Cause Célèbre, which literally means "celebrated case" in French, is based on the true and infamous case of the fun loving songwriter Alma Rattenbury who was put on public trial at the Old Bailey in 1935 with her 20 years younger lover, George Wood. Both were charged with murdering her third husband, Francis Rattenbury. He was an architect, well known for his creation of the British Columbia provincial legislative buildings and the Empress Hotel, both in Victoria, but, finally, a pathetic victim of a famous crime. The headlines – tales of sex, drugs, alcohol and gore plastered across the papers – created an early tabloid sensation. Condemned by the public, more for her seduction of a younger man than for any involvement she may have had in her husband's brutal bludgeoning death, Alma's fate is left in the hands of Edith Davenport, the morally upright forewoman of the jury. Edith is forced to reconsider her initial condemnation of the life-affirming, morally relaxed Alma. Through these two women, Terence Rattigan's last play examines the role of love, betrayal, loyalty and obsession in a study of 1930s English sensibilities.

Cause Célèbre started life as a radio play first broadcast on the BBC in 1975. It was then adapted by Terence Rattigan for the stage and premiered in 1977 at The Haymarket Theatre in Leicester, transferring to Her Majesty's Theatre in the West End of London. Revived at the Old Vic in 2011 to mark Terence Rattigan's centenary, the play has been performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 5 female, 15 male, and 1 boy

What people say:

"Dial M for marvellous. A murder story, a morality play and a blazing satire: Rattigans last play is a triumph." — The Sunday Times (London)

"No one alive writes with such understanding of sexual love or with such profound pity for its victims." — Daily Telegraph (London)

About the Author:

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.