Separate Tables

Separate Tables is the collective name of two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan, both taking place in the Beauregard Private Hotel, Bournemouth, on the south coast of England.

[1] In an early draft of the play, Rattigan had Major Pollock's misdemeanour not as harassment of women but homosexual importuning;[2] the critic Kenneth Tynan commented at the time of the premiere that the version used then was "as good a handling of sexual abnormality as English playgoers will tolerate.

[1] It opened to good reviews; Harold Hobson called the second play in the double-bill, "one of Rattigan's masterpieces, in which he shows in superlative degree his pathos, his humour and his astounding mastery over [the] English language...".

"[7] The production won one Tony award (for Leighton as best dramatic actress) and was nominated for five more: for the play, the direction, and for three of the supporting cast, Neilson-Terry, Measor and William Podmore (as Fowler).

[11] John Schlesinger directed a television film version in 1983, with Julie Christie and Alan Bates as the two couples, with Claire Bloom as Miss Cooper and Irene Worth as Mrs Railton-Bell.

It starred Geraldine McEwan as Sibyl Railton Bell and Anne Shankland, Eric Porter as Major Pollock and John Malcolm and Annette Crosbie as Pat Cooper.