Cause Célèbre orA Woman of Principle is a 1975 radio play, and the final play by the English authorTerence Rattigan. It was inspired by the trial ofAlma Rattenbury and her teenage lover in 1935 for the murder of her third husbandFrancis Rattenbury and first broadcast onBBC Radio 4 on 27 October 1975. It was Rattigan's first radio play, and Alma was played byDiana Dors.[1] Rattigan was then commissioned to rewrite it as a stage play, ready to be produced in Autumn 1976, but his terminal cancer and casting problems meant he was able to start work only in January 1977, alongside directorRobin Midgley. This stage version premiered at theHaymarket Theatre, Leicester in 1977 before its West End premiere on 4 July 1977 atHer Majesty's Theatre in London, withGlynis Johns as Alma Rattenbury and Helen Lindsay as Edith Davenport. It received largely positive reviews. Rattigan discharged himself from hospital to attend the opening night.
A 1987 television version of the stage play starredHelen Mirren as Alma andDavid Suchet as O'Connor. The stage play itself was revived at theOld Vic from March to June 2011 to mark Rattigan's centenary. The revival was directed byThea Sharrock, with Alma played byAnne-Marie Duff and Edith Davenport byNiamh Cusack. Reviews were mainly very positive, withThe Guardian calling it a "fine revival" of a play which "stands the test of time", though theLondon Evening Standard regretted that "this is not Rattigan at his most eloquently anguished." A new production of the radio play was aired byBBC Radio 4 on 25 June 2011, again directed by Sharrock with original music byAdrian Johnston.
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