Based on his own experiences in the RAF, this play, written in 1941 and first staged in 1942. Set in a hotel near an RAF Bomber Command airbase during the Second World War, the story involves a love triangle between a pilot, his actress wife and a famous film star. It was his first successful serious drama and first commercial success since the mid-1930s. The title of the play refers to the flares that were used to light runways to allow planes to take off and land but the flare paths were also used by the Germans to target the RAF planes.
The play portrays the impact on three couples of the demands on the fliers who leave, perhaps never to return, and their wives and lovers who wait for their return. Of the three couples, one is a young sergeant whose working wife is visiting for the weekend. Another is a Polish emigre Count who has married a British bar maid so that he may join the fight against the Germans. And the third couple is a young Lieutenant who is facing his own demons and is unsure if he is a worthy mate for his wife, one Patricia Graham, an actress from London, who has something of her own to tell her husband Teddy, the bomber pilot. The situation is complicated when Peter Kyle, a Hollywood film star, arrives at the hotel, and Teddy is sent out on a night raid over Germany. Patricia is torn between a rekindled old flame and loyalty to the husband who relies on her for support. The tension mounts as the the night moves into morning and the fliers begin their return. Rattigan effectively ratchets the emotional tensions and the suspense upward until the climax. ( )