Terence Rattigan's devastating masterpiece, a classic study of forbidden love, suppressed desire and the fear of loneliness - but at heart a deeply moving love story. A flat in Ladbroke Grove, West London. 1952. When Hester Collyer is found by her neighbours in the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt, the story of her tempestuous affair with a former RAF pilot and the breakdown of her marriage to a High Court judge begins to emerge. With it comes a portrait of need, loneliness and long-repressed passion. Behind the fragile veneer of post-war civility burns a brutal sense of loss and longing. First performed at the Duchess Theatre in the West End in March 1952, Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea was revived at the National Theatre in 2016, in a production directed by Carrie Cracknell and starring Helen McCrory as Hester. 'Few dramatists have written with more understanding of the human heart' Michael Billington.