The Winslow Boy

Synopsis

Drama about a family's moral legal case that creates national interest. Fourteen year old Ronnie Winslow is expelled from Osborne Naval College accused of stealing a postal order. Ronnie swears he did not do it, and so his father Arthur begins a fight to prove his son's innocence. The whole Winslow family is drawn into the consequences of the court action. First performed in London in 1946.

Our Review:

23 June 2009

Rattigan’s The Winslow Boy, loosely based on a true story, takes us to pre-First World War London, charting a father’s battle to secure a fair trial for his naval cadet son, who is accused of stealing a postal order. The father and his allies repeatedly stress that the matter around which the play revolves is not a trivial one, and that there are larger issues at stake – justice, and the rights of the individual versus the Establishment. However, this is at its heart a drama about a single family brought face to face with the question of what it is willing to sacrifice to prove the innocence of one of its members. The domestic nature of the action is in fact the source of much of the play’s strength: by giving us real people and familiar situations with which we can engage, the true weight of what is happening is brought home. During the two years spanned by the action, health is put at risk, relationships deteriorate, and the threat of financial ruin looms as the Winslows find ...

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