Escort is a 1942 play by the British writer Patrick Hastings. It is a wartime spy thriller about sabotage on a Royal Navy ship. It ran for 24 performances at the West End Lyric Theatre between 18 August and 5 September 1942. The cast included Thorley Walters, Michael Shepley, John Stuart, Charles Mortimer and Barry Morse. It was produced by Basil Dean. It was praised by The Spectator, which had recently panned Terrence Rattigan's much more successful Flare Path, as "the best and most convincing spy play" to date.
Daily Herald 19 August, 1942.
Atlantic Battle on the stage by PL Mannock Escort, which opened the Lyric Theatre last night's the finest play of the Navy since " The Flight Lieutenant." Sir Patrick Hastings KC. has written and Basil Dean produced authentic realism the saga of an armed merchant cruiser Atlantic duty with a secret submarine detector, spy in officer's uniform, and final battle against odds, thrillingly staged. John Stuart, in the part of his life as the captain, faced with grim decision is outstandingly good. Tension and ward room comedy are spendidly put over by Barry Morse, Michael Shepley. Julien Mitchel, Charles Mortimer, and a well-picked all-male cast. This is the best English drama of the war. and thoroughly deserved last night's enthusiastic reception. From The Scotsman of 21 August, 1942. Recently there has been an increasing number of plays connected with the war , a newcomer this week being "Escort", by Sir Patrick . Hastings , at the Lyric Theatre. Spy melodramas always go down well, but when the activities of the spy are confined to the compressed quarters of a warship the excitement becomes correspondingly tense. This "Play of the Royal Navy", as it is called on the programme , is under some debt to the heroic story of the "Jervis Bay". |
From The Spectator 27 August, 1942
THE THEATRE"Escort." At the Lyric Theatre. THIS is a play about the Royal Navy, and its realism is a refreshing change from some of the sentimental, pointless stuff recently seen on the London stage. It is vivid, amusing, exciting and has the great virtue in a play of steadily increasing in interest until it reaches a truly terrific climax in the last act. Apart from its fidelity to the spirit of our magnificent seamen and their tradition of service, the play has the advantage of an exceedingly good plot, and the audience is kept constantly alert, suspicious but completely baffled by the mysterious nature of what is going on in the ship. An ominous sense of danger is skilfully maintained while the threads of the mystery are being carefully gathered, and even at the very last moment the author, Sir Patrick Hastings, can produce a surprise. It is the best and most convincing spy play I have ever had the luck to see ; but it is not only a stage thriller, it is also a valuable and deeply-moving panegyric on the heroic life which is being led day by day and night by night by our seamen. |