The Deep Blue Sea at Theatre Royal Haymarket review: Tamsin Greig is shatteringly good

But back to the plot. Rattigan based The Deep Blue Sea on his secret relationship with actor Kenny Morgan who left him for another man and then gassed himself. When he wrote it, homosexuality and suicide were criminal acts. And here it’s very clear from Farrell’s gentle, contained performance that Bill is gay, even if he doesn’t know it. Although Freddie is fatally attractive to women, and has some sort of genuine passion for Hester, he too may unwittingly prefer the company of men; he’s lost without the framework of wartime camaraderie.