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The Rat Trap (1918) est un drame en quatre actes de Noël Coward, sa 'première tentative sérieuse de conflit psychologique', écrit alors qu’il n’avait que 18 ans. «J’ai senti, pour la première fois avec une réelle conviction, que je pouvais vraiment écrire des pièces… Je ne crois pas que cela ait jamais été fait depuis sa production originale, même par des amateurs, ce qui est dommage, comme j’aimerais le voir.» – Noël Coward
Elle ne sera créée à la scène qu'en 1926…
The Rat Trap est l’histoire du mariage d’une romancière et d’une dramaturge – Sheila et Keld. La pièce explore comment la jalousie professionnelle menace de détruire leur relation pour toujours. Un « mariage normal » peut-il être constitué de deux esprits créateurs, ou faudra-t-il se plier à une « domesticité terne » – et ce sera inévitablement la femme qui abandonnera son travail ? Nous suivons la lutte de Sheila pour concilier le mariage et la carrière, et la tentative de Keld pour équilibrer le succès populaire avec les pressions de la monogamie. Plein de l’esprit habituel de Coward et de plaisanteries impitoyables, The Rat Trap est une exploration émouvante – et surprenante – des luttes intemporelles du mariage.
Dans ses mémoires de 1937, Present Indicative, Cowards convient que «a whole it was immature, but it was much steadier than anything I had done hitherto...when I had finished it, I felt, for the first time with genuine conviction, that I could really write plays.»
Coward plus tard a écrit: «My first serious play, The Rat Trap, was produced at the Everyman Theatre while I was on the Olympic bound for New York, and so I never saw it… in spite of the effulgence of the cast, the play fizzled out at the end of its regulation two weeks. I was not particularly depressed about this; The Rat Trap was a dead love.»
La pièce est jouée pour la première fois le 18 octobre 1926 à l'Everyman Theatre de Hampstead, à Londres, par George Carr (également metteur en scène), Raymond Massey et Allan Wade. La production met en vedette Robert Harris dans le rôle de Keld (un jeune auteur dramatique en herbe) et Joyce Kennedy dans le rôle de Sheila (romancière, fiancée de Keld dans l’acte I, sa femme dans les trois actes suivants). Adrienne Allen soutient fortement Ruby (une actrice de comédie musicale ambitieuse), Mary Robson comme Olive (colocataire de Sheila) et Clare Greet comme Burrage (la cuisinière-gouvernante laconique).
La pièce est publiée à Londres par Ernest Benn en 1924 dans le volume 13 de la série Contemporary British Dramatists, et est rééditée par Heinemann en 1934 dans Coward’s Play Parade, Volume III. Dans son introduction Coward écrit: «It is not without merit. There is some excruciatingly sophisticated dialogue in the first act of which, at the time, I was inordinately proud. From the point of view of construction, it is not very good, except for the two principal quarrel scenes. The last act is an inconclusive shambles and is based on the sentimental and inaccurate assumption that the warring egos of the man and wife will simmer down into domestic bliss merely because the wife is about to have a dear little baby. I suppose I was sincere about this at the time, but I find it very hard to believe. I think it will only be interesting as a play to ardent students of my work, of which I hope there are several. I do not believe it has ever been done since its original production, even by amateurs, which is a pity, as I would love to see it.»
À ce jour, le premier et seul revival professionnel de la pièce a été présenté au Finborough Theatre, un théâtre du Tringe londonien dans le cadre de sa saison 2006, du 28 novembre au 23 décembre 2006. Il a reçu des critiques de presse universellement bons.
Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Rat Trap (The)
Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Rat Trap (The)
Version 1
Rat Trap (The) (1926-10-Everyman Theatre-London)
Type de série: OriginalThéâtre: Everyman Theatre (Londres - Angleterre) Durée : Nombre : 12 représentationsPremière Preview : Inconnu
Première: 18 October 1926
Dernière: InconnuMise en scène : George Carr • Chorégraphie : Producteur : Star(s) : Avec: Robert Harris as Keld (an aspiring young playwright) and Joyce Kennedy as Sheila (a novelist, Keld's fiancée in Act I, his wife in the three subsequent acts). Strong support was given by Adrienne Allen as Ruby (an ambitious musical comedy actress), Mary Robson as Olive (Sheila's flatmate) and Clare Greet as Burrage (the laconic cook-housekeeper)
Version 2
Rat Trap (The) (2006-11-Finborough Theatre-Londres)
Type de série: RevivalThéâtre: Finborough Theatre (Londres - Angleterre) Durée : 3 semaines Nombre : Première Preview : Inconnu
Première: 28 November 2006
Dernière: 23 December 2006Mise en scène : Tim Luscombe • Chorégraphie : Producteur : Star(s) : Avec: Federay Holmes, Catherine Hamilton, Gregory Finnegan, Steven O’Neill, Kathryn Sumner, Heather Chasen, Olivia DarnleyPresse : "On stage in the West End at the Finborough Theatre after 80 years offstage"
Evening Standard ES Magazine
“Heroic effort by a young Coward...Written in 1918, when he was only 18 and not revived since a brief London run in 1926, Noel Coward's The Rat Trap is an absolute revelation.” Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard
“Tim Luscombe’s revival for the Finborough’s Forgotten Voices season makes for a most rewarding evening”
Jeremy Kingston, The Times
“This may be Coward juvenilia, but for sheer energy, engrossing performances and entertainment value the production knocks spots off almost every other straight play in London at the moment, and is sure to lead to further revivals or, better still, a transfer.”
John Thaxter, British Theatre Guide
“It’s certainly worth catching Tim Luscombe’s excellent production, unless you want to wait another 90 years for the chance.”
Alastair Smith, The Stage
“Tim Luscombe’s intense production makes ideal use of the Finborough’s tiny round space” Caroline McGinn, Time Out
“The rich entertainment provided by Tim Luscombe's production.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian
“Played in the round on the tightest of spaces, Luscombe and his cast vividly re-create an unjustly forgotten drama that is both like and interestingly unlike the plays that followed.”
Jeremy Kingston, The Times
“The [ forgotten voices season ]…This first time revival of 1926 Noel Coward play The Rat Trap is undoubtedly one of its high points...It provides some wonderful moments of theatre, especially in its more argumentative passages”
Alastair Smith, The Stage
“There hasn’t been anything twee or stuffy about any of the season of Forgotten Voices. They all demand to be heard, for their style, their wit, their unquenchable curiosity about people.”
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds
“With aphoristic, witty shafts…Coward reminds us how the pleasures of free-love and adultery were lavishly sampled before London's naughty 1920s.”
Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard
“A fascinating revival...very interesting and well worth seeing...It is an astonishingly accomplished and psychologically mature work” C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds
“Its post-mortem of the death of creative love in marriage is shocking and pertinent”
Caroline McGinn, Time Out
“This is the first play Coward wrote, in 1918, when he was no older than the century…the marital troubles of his central couple show a firm grasp of the realities and an instinct for how to dramatise them.”
Jeremy Kingston, The Times
“This very interesting play. I applaud the Finborough for having released it from obscurity and Tim Luscombe for his brilliant direction… Anyone who is interested in Theatre should go and see it and so should those who aren’t – it is an opportunity to relish a piece of theatrical history which should not be missed.”
David Munro, IndieLondon.com
“Tim Luscombe’s fluid direction, which carefully balances stylish comedy of manners with truthful emotional psychology”
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds
“Staged in the round, the actors barely inches from some of the audience, it proves an intense experience and the cast do not disappoint even at such close quarters.”
Alastair Smith, The Stage
“Catherine Hamilton, a fascinating find recently seen in The Madras House at the Orange Tree, conveys Sheila’s mixed emotions with beautifully expressive eyes and a controlled but thrilling vocal delivery”
John Thaxter, British Theatre Guide
“Catherine Hamilton is a real find as Sheila”
Michael Billington, The Guardian
“Catherine Hamilton’s Sheila becomes increasingly moving and real”
Jeremy Kingston, The Times
“Well led by Catherine Hamilton and Gregory Finnegan as the central pair”
Alastair Smith, The Stage
“Gregory Finnegan…an attractive, forceful portrayal”
John Thaxter, British Theatre Guide
“The supporting cast is equally strong...A dashing Sapphic performance by Federay Holmes” John Thaxter, British Theatre Guide
“Played with delicious wickedness and bang in period by Olivia Darnley”
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds
“The throwaway wit and flyaway gestures of Federay Holmes’s Olive”
Jeremy Kingston, The Times
“The casting of Federay Holmes as the couple’s progressive friend Olive brings the androgynous elegance of Coward’s mature persona into his youthful play - her languid drawl and her judgments are ahead of their time but, like Coward’s wit, are compassionate and candid as well as oblique.”
Caroline McGinn, Time Out
“Kathryn Sumner is radiantly beautiful in Grecian splendour as the mellifluously voiced Bohemian writer Naomi”
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds
“Heather Chasen and Olivia Darnley’s vivid characterizations”
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds
“The production’s highlights come from the well-realised supporting cast - Federay Holmes’ gossip journalist, acting as Sheila’s confidante, Olivia Darnley as the coquette who convinces Keld to play away and Heather Chasen’s hugely entertaining…servant.” Alastair Smith, The Stage
“Even in early Coward, the minor figures also possess an abundant life neatly caught by Olivia Darnley as a predatory ex-chorus girl and Heather Chasen as a trundling maid announcing "marriage is a snare".” Michael Billington, The Guardian
“Sublimely recreated by Heather Chasen in a classic comedy maid performance that should be enshrined for its focus, reality and timing”
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds
“As the shrewd, down-to-earth maid, Heather Chasen shuffles around in lace-up shoes and a grim cardigan almost down to her knees, while wearing an expression of determined inscrutability. Her magnificent vintage performance - quiet, truthful, comic - is the evening's authentic Cowardian delight.”
Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard
“Heather Chasen as Burrage the maid, put upon and put down, gave the usual splendid supporting performance we have come to expect from this very accomplished actress.” David Munro, IndieLondon.com
“The performance of the evening is a sly turn by Heather Chasen, with little more than forty lines or so, playing the shrewd, long-suffering cook Burrage, an Edwardian relic with a cut-glass accent that renders ‘marriage’ as ‘merridge’ to devastating comedy effect, while managing to tell her innermost thoughts with the merest flicker of an eyelid. Do catch this superb veteran at the top of her form.”
John Thaxter, British Theatre Guide
“These rediscoveries open your mind to all sorts of connected historical facts that it’s impossible not to be intrigued by; it’s a sort of living theatre museum; a cabinet of treasures from the theatre of the recent past, the past that our theatrical consciousness is built on”
C J Sheridan, Rogues and Vagabonds
“Unseen in London since 1926, this early Noel Coward play is something of a turn-up for the books. Coward wrote it when he was 18, but already you see him, as a precocious stripling, sketching out the theme that was to haunt his later work: the idea that talent is best fulfilled by shedding emotional commitments...What is fascinating is detecting hints of the Coward to come. The battle of the two fractious egotists clearly anticipates the cushion-throwing tantrums of Elyot and Amanda in Private Lives…Coward also prefigures his later ability to give life to eccentrically named off-stage characters: we never see Clara Dewlap or Evangeline Featherstone, but we believe in them.”
Michael Billington, The Guardian
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