User Reviews

This is, to date, the only TV or film adaptation of Terrence Rattigan's After The Dance, and there's unlikely to be another one, unfortunately.

The main positive of this production is the wonderful source material. The writers haven't fiddled with the script at all- what you see on screen is the play that Terrence Rattigan wrote.

What is the play that Rattigan wrote? It's about a group of middle-class hedonists and the unhappiness behind all the parties, set and written just before WW2. In particular, it's about David Scott-Fowler (Anton Rodgers), a writer who spends more time drinking than he does writing, his wife Joan (Gemma Jones), and pretty Oxford student Helen (Imogen Stubbs), who has her eye set on reforming David. The marriage between David and Joan is on the surface a loveless one. However tragically Joan has always secretly loved David. Their friend John (John Bird) is secretly in love with Joan.

The play is sort of a mix between Chekhov and Fitzgerald. The tragicomedy and the pain of loving the wrong people is typical Chekhov. The hedonism and the character of David are based on Scott Fitzgerald. As this play is so underrated, one would hope that the BBC would realise what a gem they have and create a dynamic version. However they seem to have picked it simply because of Rattigan's name, and so they have done a dutiful adaptation.

Rodgers and Jones are excellent but they are far too old for their parts. They appear to be in their early fifties rather than late thirties. Whilst this does effectively convey the lethargy of all those parties, it doesn't show the tragicomic aspect of them trying to regain their youth (their youth being in the twenties). It also stretches credibility that Helen would fall for David. Bird is also excellent as the friend who sponges off David. He's a sponge but he's also a decent guy, who tries to talk some sense into David.

I'd recommend watching this as a preservation of a very good play. It would probably be best to read the play first, just in case you don't like this version.

There's a great moment where one of the guests suggests that they wanted to have a gas-mask fancy dress party only it'd be hard for people to drink.

The flaw of this production is that one gets the sense that the BBC are preserving the play rather than interpreting it. It's a flaw present in many of the BBC's theatre adaptations, even in this one which was made in the early nineties. The acting itself is nearly always to a good standard- it's just a shame that they aren't as dynamic as they should be.

I've seen this three times now - as a DVD included among the Rattigan box set. I'd read a collection of Rattigan's plays - but this wasn't among them. As the director of the recent Olivier award winning National Theater production of "After the Dance" has stated, the failure of the play to run a long time in 1939 caused Rattigan to exclude it from his "Best Plays" collections. The play had received great acclaim by critics when it opened - and was doing fine business for two months - but then the War began - and the emotional ends of theater-going changed rather dramatically. The play closed soon afterward.

It's a superb play. I'm delighted that it's been revived to such a heralded response in London. It conveys a specific set of people - London based, upper class, only just too young for the First World War -who partied through the 1920s and the 1930s - ostensibly occupied with something, but not with true dedication. Eccentricity, a studied nonchalance, an affected boredom with the serious are the style of conversation - and gossip the substance. They now face a Second World War, a new generation - and themselves. There is considerable self-blame for their indulgence, wistfulness over age, self-questioning whether they can revivify, and wonder whether their characters are sufficiently supple or strong to start anew - as a new generation grinds alongside.

The play is quite realistic - and sad - and funny. The performances here are fine - you may, as I, wish to see it time and again. It's that fine a play.

Terence Rattigan has very quickly become one of my favourite playwrights, his dialogue is so intelligent, witty and meaty, his characterisation so dynamic, complex and real and the storytelling so beautifully constructed.

'After the Dance' is not as well known as 'The Winslow Boy', 'Separate Tables', 'The Browning Version' (my favourite) or even 'The Deep Blue Sea, and it is a shame because it has everything that is so good about Rattigan and a perfect mix of the tragic and the comic. There are not many productions/adaptations of 'After the Dance', so this production has to make do. And it does so splendidly, of the Terence Rattigan Collection available on DVD (which is an essential buy) it is one of the best ones along with 'The Winslow Boy' and 'Separate Tables'.

It is handsomely produced and costumed and beautifully filmed with a fresher look than some of the older productions on the set. The comic elements are genuinely funny, more so than that of 'French Without Tears', and the tragic elements are equally moving, both are also balanced wonderfully. There is also plenty of insight, provoking of thought and meat as is usual of Rattigan's writing and when his plays are performed and adapted well.

Storytelling never becomes dull, entertains but also packs a punch emotionally, while the whole thing is very nicely directed and paced. The only criticism of the performance actually is that the leads Anton Rodgers and Gemma Jones are too old for the roles (which slightly hurts the plausibility somewhat), but this is compensated hugely by that both give simply brilliant performances, Jones in particular is very moving. The supporting cast are similarly excellent in a production that doesn't forget to make them interesting.

In conclusion, another Rattigan winner and tragicomedy as it should be done. 9/10 Bethany Cox