More than any other local theatre group, Open Space focuses on classic texts, favouring writers such as Anton Chekov, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams.  In doing so they set themselves the considerable challenge of doing the texts justice, while breathing new life into frequently familiar narratives. The works of Terence Rattigan present the additional challenge of being neither contemporary nor period drama, but having previously tackled two of his best known plays it’s perhaps unsurprising that they were unable to resist returning to his work.

The central theme of The Deep Blue Sea is how attraction for some things, and some people, can be both seductive and destructive. Expecting this compulsion to be rationalised within the drama misses the point. Rattigan side stepped the question by offering a snapshot of a soured relationship that, while it might tempt the audience to speculate how things got this way, is really about dealing with a situation as you find it. Mia Chadwick was given the unenviable task of making us believe that Hester Collyer would be so infatuated with the ostensibly unlikeable Freddy Page that she would contemplate suicide in the face of a crumbling relationship. It’s a testament to her acting skills that the inherent improbability of Hester’s actions rarely crosses the audience’s mind, evoking our sympathy rather than disbelief, not withstanding her frustrating blind love.