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Tamsin Greig is shatteringly good in Terence Rattigan’s 1952 tragedy of quiet desperation. She plays Hester Collyer, a clergyman’s daughter who left her eminent lawyer husband for a raffish ex-RAF pilot who has turned to drink and delusion in peacetime. Hester is first seen unconscious after trying to gas herself in their rented rooms in shabby, post-war Ladbroke Grove, failing only because she forgot – or couldn’t afford – to put a shilling in the meter.
Though Hester’s story is the epicentre of sadness, Lindsay Posner’s finely-wrought revival also shows us the wreckage of the husband, Bill (Nicholas Farrell) and the neglectful lover, Freddie (Hadley Fraser). It evokes the humanity of her landlady and fellow-tenants, particularly Finbar Lynch as the doctor, Karl Miller - struck off for some unforgiveable act of misconduct - who tells Hester that life is possible even after hope.