ALAN BATES AND JULIE CHRISTIE
IN "SEPARATE TABLES"

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
New York Times, April 4, 1983

Terence Rattigan is the type of British playwright who went out of fashion with the arrival in the late 1950's of John Osborne and other angry young men. Rattigan's world was a fishtank of delicate sensibilities, elliptical references and understated resolutions. "Separate Tables," really two one-act plays, was first produced in the mid-1950's, starring Margaret Leighton and Eric Porter in double roles. A film version gave the key roles to four actors: Burt Lancaster, Rita Hayworth, Deborah Kerr and, in an Academy Award-winning performance, David Niven.
This time, in a production taped at a Bristol, England studio, the roles revert to two actors, Alan Bates and Julie Christie, directed by John Schlesinger. All three had previously worked together in the film "Far From the Madding Crowd." The producers of "Separate Tables," Edie and Ely Landau, have also assembled an outstanding supporting cast, headed by Claire Bloom and Irene Worth, and including Liz Smith, Sylvia Barter and Bernard Archard.

In the first play, "Table by the Window," Anne Shankland (Miss Christie), a fading fashion model, arrives at a genteel seaside hotel in Bournemouth. The other guests are all atwitter over her elegant presence, none more so than the rumpled, alcoholic John Malcolm (Mr. Bates), a former Labor politician who also happens to be one of her former husbands. Mr. Malcolm is also having an affair with the incandescently serene Miss Cooper (Miss Bloom), manager of the hotel.

In the second hour, "Table Number Seven," the scene is the same, but the time is 18 months later. Miss Christie appears as Sybil, mousy daughter of the imperious Mrs. Railton-Bell (Miss Worth). Sybil has taken a liking to the impossibly pompous "Major" Pollack (Mr. Bates), who, as it is discovered in a local newspaper article, is a fraud caught in a minor sexual offense at a movie theater. Mama wants Pollack ostracized from polite society. Sides must be taken, and they finally are, with a subtle impact that is surprisingly moving.

"Separate Tables" manages to seem slight while dealing perceptively with the more profound themes of life-growing old, unfulfilled promises, moral principles. And beneath the very civilized surfaces are unsettling truths. As Miss Cooper puts it, "The word normal applied to any human creature is utterly meaningless."
Miss Christie and Mr. Bates are superb-she, cold and drawn as the model, dowdy and trembling as the daughter; he, puffy and belligerent as the failed politician, blimpish and pathetic as the fraud. The others are virtually perfect. And Mr. Schlesinger's direction keeps a firm but unobtrusive grip on the play. Mr. Rattigan and his reputation have been served well.

© New York Times 1983