Hester abandons the security and respectability of life with her distinguished older husband, throwing herself into a passionate affair with former RAF pilot Freddie. His raffish charm wears thin, but Hester remains infatuated. With overpowering feelings for Freddie and with her husband ready to forgive, Hester finds herself caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Terence Rattigan’s 1950s masterpiece portrays the emotional turmoil of a woman defying convention and the destructive power of love. Brought to you by the team behind Of Mice and Men and All My Sons, The Deep Blue Sea promises to be unforgettably moving.
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See photos from the rehearsal room here
Running Times
Act 1: 77 minutes
Interval: 20 minutes
Act 2: 41 minutes
Directed by Douglas Rintoul
Designed by James Turner
Lighting designed by Tim Lutkin
Sound designed by Helen Atkinson
Adam Best
Jackie Jackson
Theatre credits include: Elegy (Transport Theatre Company); Laertes/Rosencrantz in Hamlet (Glasgow Citizens); Barney Bagnall in The Silver Tassie (National Theatre); James Tyrone Jnr in Long Days Journey Into Night (Edinburgh Lyceum); Raskolnikov in Crime & Punishment (Glasgow Citizens / Liverpool Playhouse / Edinburgh Lyceum); Horster in Public Enemy (Young Vic); The Actor in Woman in Black (Fortune Theatre); Ketch/Ross Our Country’s Good (Original Theatre Company / UK tour); Young Man in The Golden Dragon (Actors Touring Company).
TV & Film credits include: Silent Witness (BBC); Blooded (Magma Pictures); Waking The Dead (BBC); The Bill (Talkback Thames); The Catherine Tate Show (Tiger Aspect); Holby City (BBC); Cupcake (Northern Ireland Screen / Wee Buns Production).
James Hillier
Mr Miller
Theatre credits include: Venice Preserv’d (The Spectator’s Guild); Pick One/Church… (Theatre Uncut for The Young Vic); I'm With The Band (Traverse Theatre/Edinburgh and UK Tour) Casablanca (Future Cinema); Sluts Of Sutton Drive (Finborough Theatre); Titanic (MAC Theatre); 66 Books (Bush Theatre); Blue Surge (Finborough Theatre); The Water Engine (Old Vic); Clockwork Orange (Citizens Theatre); A Map Of The Region (NT Studio); Closer (Northampton Royal Theatre); Through The Glass (National Theatre); Recruiting Officer (Litchfield); Something Cloudy Something Clear (Finborough Theatre); The Homecoming (Manchester Royal Exchange); Lulu (Almeida); Journey’s End (Drill Hall); Trips (Birmingham Rep Theatre); Le Bourgeois Gentlehomme (Upstairs at The Gatehouse).
Eliza Hunt
Mrs Elton
Theatre credits include: Charlotte Ardsley in For Services Rendered (Union Theatre, Southwark); Rebecca Huntley-Pike in Chorus of Disapproval, Lady Constance in Summer Lightening, Snout in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick); Lady Falconbridge in King John and Lady Montague in Romeo & Juliet (RSC); Charmaine in Sugar Daddies (Scarborough); Shirley in Shirley Valentine (York Theatre Royal);
Television credits include: Josh, Cardinal Burns, Quick Cuts, Sold, Belonging, Doctors, Urban Gothic, London Bridge, Dressing for Breakfast, A Village Affair, The Bill, Big Battalions, Grange Hill, Labours of Erica, All in Good Faith, Mountain and the Molehill, Heart Attack Hotel, Freud, Something in Disguise, All Creatures Great and Small.
Adam Jackson-Smith
Freddie
Theatre credits include: The Rivals (Arcola Theatre); The 39 Steps (West End); The Second Mrs Tanqueray (Rose Theatre); The Illusion (Southwark Playhouse – Offie nominated for Best Actor); The Adventure (Hightide Festival); The Phoenix of Madrid, Iphigenia, The Surprise of Love (Theatre Royal Bath); The 24hr Plays (Old Vic).
Film credits include: Youth (Indigo Films); 51 Degrees North (Films United); I’m Not Gavin; The Followed.
Adam Kotz
Sir William Collyer
Adam Kotz lives in Newbury and has worked all over the world in theatre, film and TV.
Theatre credits include: Ghosts (Best Revival, 2014 Olivier Awards) and Sherlock’s Last Case (Watermill) and past productions with the National Theatre, RSC, Almeida, Royal Court, Old Vic, The Bush and in Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield.
Television and Film includes: Body Farm, The Hollow Crown, The Promise, Five Daughters, Silent Witness, Survivors, Moses Jones, Torn, Midsomer Murders, Messiah, Band of Gold and the films Nightwatching and The Last King of Scotland.
Adam also teaches drama and communication skills, guitar, banjo and mandolin, and has played and written songs for TV, theatre and the bands Case Hardin, the Poachers and currently The Engineers. He is Chair of community venue ACE Space Newbury.
Hattie Ladbury
Hester
Trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
Theatre credits include: An Ideal Husband and Canvas (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare’s Globe); To Kill A Mockingbird (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); The Game of Love & Chance, The Winslow Boy (Salisbury Playhouse); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Private Lives (New Wolsey Theatre); Tejas Verdes (Gate Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (Bath Theatre Royal / Tour); Candida (Oxford Stage Company); After Mrs Rochester (Shared Experience, Duke of Yorks); Top Girls (Aldwych Theatre); After The Dance (Oxford Stage Company); The Norman Conquests (Ipswich Wolsey Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oxford Stage Company); Tess of the D’urbervilles (Forest Forge Theatre Company).
Fred Lancaster
Philip Welch
Trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.
Theatre credits include: The Silver Tassie (National Theatre); Henry V (West End); This House (National Theatre); The Winters Tale (Mercury Theatre Colchester); Private Resistance (Eastern Angles Spring Tour); Fallujah (Cockpit Theatre); Silent Night (Theatre 503).
Television credits includes: Inside the Titanic (Discovery Channel) Secret Diary of a Call Girl (ITV).
Bathsheba Piepe
Ann Welch
Bathsheba trained at LAMDA and made her professional debut as Amanda in Hello/Goodbye at the Hampstead Theatre.
Theatre while at LAMDA includes: the title role in Jessica Swale’s Nell Gwynn, Mary Shelley, Before the Party and On The Razzle.
Theatre while at Warwick University includes: Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, Jennet in The Lady’s Not for Burning.
For the National Youth Theatre: Jessica in the Merchant of Venice (Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House), Maryam in Eating Ice Cream on Gaza Beach (Soho Theatre.)
Bathsheba also originated the role of Marcel in Fellswoop Theatre’s Belleville Rendez-vous, winner of the NSDF, Spotlight, RSC and Ideastap Emerging Artists’ Award.
‘The Watermill’s production portrays The Deep Blue Sea's exploration of love and marriage with sharp clarity and with a fantastic cast this is a production well worth seeing.’ ★★★★ The Public Reviews
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'The uncompromising philosophy of Terence Rattigan... sensitively staged in this sympathetic production at the Watermill.' ★★★ The Stage
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‘[Hattie] Ladbury is charismatic, magnetic, heartbreaking, tear-inducing and occasionally joyous. She captures that 1950s veneer of calm while letting her emotions bubble up underneath it.’ The Henley Standard
‘Really not to be missed.’ The Henley Standard
'In this impeccable production from The Watermill Theatre, skilfully directed by Douglas Rintoul, the very core of the meaning of love and marriage is exposed.' British Theatre Guide
'With designer James Turner’s superbly detailed period set and impressive lighting by Tim Lutkin together with an emotive jazz soundscape designed by Helen Atkinson, this is an excellent revival of a classic play that should not be missed.' British Theatre Guide
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‘The Deep Blue Sea has rightly stood the test of time and in the hands of this superb cast and director Douglas Rintoul, every nuance of emotion is wrung from it.' Newbury Weekly News
'A first-rate evening.' Newbury Weekly News