In Praise of Love

by Terence Rattigan, Dan Rebellato (Introduction)

An almost unbearably moving story of veiled emotions running deep, In Praise of Love is a fictional play based on the true life situation of Rex Harrison’s wife Kay Kendall, and her early death from cancer. The ending is "among the most perfectly crafted and economically effective passages anywhere in British drama."—Michael Darlow

Genres: Plays, Drama

104 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1975

About the author

Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan, CBE was a British dramatist. He was one of England's most popular mid twentieth century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background. He is known for such works as The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952) and Separate Tables (1954), among many others.

A troubled homosexual, who saw himself as an outsider, his plays "confronted issues of sexual frustration, failed relationships and adultery", and a world of repression and reticence.

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, this play portrays love; but it also suggests reticence and pretense blur into something like a cruel selfishness.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

The play is precisely what the title says it is - but it doesn't praise youthful passion; it praises mature, spiritual love and devotion.

Within the play a character says that the English vice is never to show emotion. Each of the two middle-aged spouses withhold information from the other to protect their partner. But each knows the truth - Lydia, the wife, is dying of an incurable disease and only an American friend is told the true facts by both of them. Of course we, the audience, know their secrets too, and therein lie our tears.

[grac · Rating 5 out of 5]

such a beautiful and well written play

[Anton Segers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vakmanschap. Intelligente, subtiel genuanceerde dialogen. Personages met diepte, verborgen kanten. Belangwekkende inzichten in Britse en/of universele angst voor emoties en eerlijkheid.
In één woord: Rattigan.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, the guy has a tendency to grow a bit sappy toward the end.

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saturday Play

BBC blurbs - A number of Terence Rattigan's plays e.g. The Winslow Boy, Separate Tables, The Deep Blue Sea, Cause Celebre were triggered by real incidents - and In Praise of Love is no exception. In the mid-1950s his friend, Rex Harrison, told him that his wife, the talented Kay Kendall, was dying of leukaemia, but she but she didn't know and he would never tell her.

Twenty years later Rattigan wrote this, his very last stage play, which was produced in 1973 and subsequently on Broadway, with Rex Harrison himself in the lead, triggered by this true event.

The play is precisely what the title says it is - but it doesn't praise youthful passion; it praises mature, spiritual love and devotion.

Within the play a character says that the English vice is never to show emotion. Each of the two middle-aged spouses withhold information from the other to protect their partner. But each knows the truth - Lydia, the wife, is dying of an incurable disease and only an American friend is told the true facts by both of them. Of course we, the audience, know their secrets too, and therein lie our tears. The critic Harold Hobson called it "the most moving expression of love that I have ever seen on a stage...a compact heart-breaking masterpiece".

Cast:
Lydia Cruttwell ..... Sarah Badel
Sebastian Cruttwell ..... Martin Jarvis
Mark Walters ..... Kerry Shale
Joey Cruttwell ..... James Joyce

Director: Celia de Wolff
A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4.

[Ellie]

This play is about a family consisting of a Marxist writer, a dying wife, and a son. The wife tries to conceal the fact that she is dying.

Jennie Warmack recommended this book to me and I read it last year during spring break. Wonderful wonderful wonderful. I loved how the show ended (which I'm not going to say because I hate spoilers). What I will say is that it is hopeful in such a lovely way. I looooove reading plays, but if you've been reading my other reports on the books on this list then you already know that.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4:

A number of Terence Rattigan's plays e.g. The Winslow Boy, Separate Tables, The Deep Blue Sea, Cause Celebre were triggered by real incidents - and In Praise of Love is no exception. In the mid-1950s his friend, Rex Harrison, told him that his wife, the talented Kay Kendall, was dying of leukaemia, but she but she didn't know and he would never tell her.

[Paul Servini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never read or heard this play before. It certainly gives a lot of food for thought about the nature of love and relationships. And the performances were brilliant.