An Evening on Terence Rattigan, with Princess Galitzine

The Terence Rattigan Society presents:-

An Evening on Terence Rattigan, with Princess Galitzine at the English-Speaking Union, Dartmouth House, 37 Charles Street, London W1J 5ED

Wednesday 21^st May, 2014 ,

19.00 – 20.00 in the Long Drawing Room

From 20.00 refreshments in the Churchill Room

Details of how to book for this event will appear in the February edition of ‘The Rattigan Version’.

The great 1950’s Dior fashion model, Jean Dawnay (Princess George Galitzine) was a close friend of the playwright, Sir Terence Rattigan and she was the hostess at many of the glittering parties he held.  In particular the party for the opening of the film ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’.  Jean greeted all the guests, including Marilyn Monroe, who starred in the picture, her husband Arthur Miller,  Sir Laurence Olivier and his wife Vivien Leigh as well as Dame Sybil Thorndike, Margot Fonteyn, John Gielgud, Lady Diana Cooper and Peggy Ashcroft.

During the first part of the evening the Princess will be talking about being the friend, muse and hostess of Terence Rattigan with his biographer Geoffrey Wansell.  And then Geoffrey and the playwright Giles Cole will give a unique insight into the private face of one of the Twentieth Century’s greatest playwrights.

Actors Judy Buxton and Stephen Martin-Bradley will perform extracts from the plays – ‘In Praise of Love’:  ‘The Browning Version’:  ‘The Deep Blue Sea’: and ‘Separate Tables’.

Writer and journalist Geoffrey Wansell’s book ‘Terence Rattigan’ was first published in 1995 and he is also the author of the recently published ‘Poirot and Me’, written with David Suchet.

Giles Cole is the author of ‘ The Art of Concealment’, a play which tells the story of Terence Rattigan’s life and which was first performed in Rattigan’s centenary year, 2011.