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In 1933, an Oxford undergraduate named Terence Rattigan brought his first play to the stage. Written with his friend Philip Heimann, ‘First Episode’ drew on the seedier real-life shenanigans of Rattigan’s student circle (gambling; drinking; a good deal of pre-marital sex) and caused an inevitable stir. Lonson’s Public Morality Council called it ‘unpleasant and immoral’, but despite – or perhaps because of – such censure, the play did well, and brought Rattigan his first taste of fame.
This new production of ‘First Episode’ – its first professional airing since the 1930s – offers an intriguing insight into how hugely our tastes have changed. There is little in the play to raise an eyebrow now, other than its archaically patronising attitude to women; and the references to a possible homosexual attraction between the two central male characters, Tony (Gavin Fowler) and David (Philip Labey), are so subtle they are almost impossible to spot.
Director Tom Littler has previously brought several mostly forgotten plays to vivid life, and here he shows his customary skill for reanimating history: the period is nicely evoked, with Neil Irish’s handsome set conjuring the students’ crowded, bohemian Oxford rooms.
There are some convincing performances, too – Labey is particularly good as the restless, urbane David – and Rattigan fans will enjoy spotting the incipient preoccupations that would define his later work (desire versus duty; love forbidden or unrequited). But time has not been kind to the play’s flaws – it is overlong, with clumsy passages of exposition, and characters that don’t quite ring true. ‘First Episode’ is compelling as a piece of juvenilia, but not hugely interesting in its own right.