SOURCE: Spencer, Charles. “Putting a Brave Face on Desperation.” Daily Telegraph (8 July 1993): 17.

In the following favorable review of the 1993 production of Separate Tables, Spencer reflects on the critical neglect of Rattigan's work.

I suspect 1993 will be remembered as the year Terence Rattigan finally came in from the cold. In the Forties and early Fifties he was the most successful of West End playwrights, but with the arrival of the angry young men his stock fell disastrously. He was seen as a dishonest, even cowardly writer, pandering to the complacent morality of “Aunt Edna”, whom Rattigan described as “the universal and immortal middle-class theatre-goer”. But with the superb revival of The Deep Blue Sea earlier this year and now Peter Hall's excellent production of Separate Tables at the Albery, his neglect seems baffling and his detractors foolish. There is a spirit of charity and human understanding in both these...