The Winslow Boy

Rattigan’s 1946 play has been regularly revived and adapted for the screen on a number of occasions. It remains a classic because it still has something to say.

Set at the turn of the century, with WWI imminent, the action takes place in the drawing room of the charming Winslow family home.  They are upper middle class, but unpretentious, complex, engaging and real. Parents, Grace and Arthur are anticipating a comfortable retirement. Catherine, intelligent and unromantic, is soon to be married. Dickie is the charming wastrel who might apply himself to graduate from Oxford were it not for his passion for ragtime. But it is 13-year-old Ronnie who brings the family undone. Naïve and somewhat stolid, Ronnie is expelled from Osborne Naval college.

The Crown, represented in the Admiralty, dismisses Ronnie without representation, threatening the Winslow family with a deep injustice. With the same repercussions as current day cancel culture, the Winslows are exposed to loss of reputation, connections, prospects and career. In the pursuit of justice, which is reported forensically in the press, the losses are pecuniary, emotional, physical and social. The plot is compelling but it is the characters who drive it.

Ian McQueen, husband of director, Meredith McQueen, is a veteran actor who ages visibly throughout the course of the play whilst maintaining the  character’s optimism and acerbic good humour. In this small cast, McQueen is rarely off stage.

Phillipa Clymo is a warm, tolerant and caring matriarch. Clymo is at home in her beautiful box set in her lovely costumes but could be any wife and mother in the same situation. She is sometimes frustrated, sometimes sad, but ever practical and defensive of her children. She portrays the woman, not an Edwardian stereotype. 

Louise Stubs is unique beauty, gorgeously costumed by a team of costumiers. Catherine, the rational and determined suffragette, is played by Stubs with vulnerability and supressed emotion.

In a play with more humour than one might initially suspect, Tom Howard’s Dickie is hilarious. Profligate and self-indulgent, his is a charming character who comes into his own.

On opening night, Ronnie was played by Zac Forey (alternating with Stella Wessledine). Forey was exactly right as the boy, fearful of consequences, fond of sleeping and who is reported as forgetting to bathe.  The still point of the maelstrom, Forey was a perfect physical incarnation of Ronnie with a spot-on accent.

Rowan Dix could have turned Sir Robert Morton into caricature but he becomes more fully rounded as the play continues. Jon Lenthall is funnier than he ought to be as the dull solicitor, Curry. Adrian Reddish as the smug and selfish John Watherstone is another excellent casting choice. Sigru’n O´sk Jo´hannes do´ttir has a delightful cameo as the devious reporter. Tam Bloomfield plays for laughs but her Violet is a reminder of that family is all about acceptance and defence of the weaker members.

All of this takes place in beautifully dressed box set. This play is intelligently directed, witty, and intriguing. It endures for being well written and relevant. It is about family, those without representation and the pillory of public shame.  

Anne Blythe-Cooper

Photographer: Wayne Wagg