Putney Theatre Company is an amateur theatre company based at Putney Arts Theatre in Ravenna Road London SW15 6AW. Flare Path by Terence Rattigan runs until Saturday.

During the war, Rattigan served in the Royal Air Force as a tail gunner; his experiences helped inspire Flare Path. The London stage production opened in August 1942 at the Apollo Theatre. It was a great success and ran for eighteen months. Rattigan was given leave to attend the opening night, and he recalled “spending most of that evening standing rigidly to attention, while Air Marshal after Air Marshal approached the humble Flying Officer to tell him how his play should really have been written.” Prime Minister Winston Churchill attended the play and said it was “a masterpiece of understatement … but then we are rather good at understatement, aren’t we?”

Excellent production of one of Rattigan’s less performed play.

Tickets 02087886943