Spoiler alert: Ross by T. Rattigan (TW: Rape)
A few of my thoughts after reading Ross by Terence Rattigan:
1. I believe it was @nedgofastvroom who said the the Turkish Captain is a projection of Lawrence and I can’t agree enough. He stands out physically, the Turkish General mentions being convinced that the Captain is Circassian, which the Captain quickly denies. He is also quite outspoken and voices thoughts that Lawrence himself would struggle with (”he’d like to but won’t admit he’d like to so he doesn’t”), also he hates Lawrence (or the Emir Dynamite persona) vehemently and wishes him dead.
2. Despite hating Lawrence the Turkish Captain calls the General out on his cruelty and attempts to stop the soldiers from continuing the torture and rape. I think that to a degree the Captain embodies the pain and shame Lawrence must have felt after his ordeal, the part of him that keeps asking “could I have saved myself, could I have done something to stop this from happening?”
3. The relationship between the Captain and the General is very strange. Most of the time they talk like equals, not like superior and subordinate, the Captain seems very much at ease in the General’s office. Also, the General is quite gentle with the Captain, talking to him softly and patiently, touching him, ruffling his hair. I don’t want to say that there are romantic feelings between the two because that doesn’t add up with the “Turkish Captain as projection of Lawrence” theory but it is really strange and actually makes me feel uncomfortable.
4. The General decides to break Lawrence by attacking his bodily integrity, as he puts it: confronting him with the “facts of life”. His plan is to confront the intellectual with his own physicality, with the fact that he isn’t just a mind but a body as well, that he was carnal desires and that certain bodily reactions are beyond his mind’s control. This is extremely disturbing.
5. The airmen. Oh my God, the airmen. They’re amusing but they’re also bullies. It amazes me that although they constantly make fun of Ross, when they find out he’s getting discharged from the RAF they decide to get together and try to help him by writing a petition to their superiors. I love how they basically tell Ross “we think you are being treated unfairly and we want to write a letter to our bosses to tell them that but we don’t know how to do it so we need you to write the letter for us, we need you to help us help you.”
6. Beware, this play switches very quickly between hilarious and heartbreaking. But it’s absolutely worth reading.
theartofmadeline
amandla
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
yousharknotpass
