THE BROWNING VERSION - ARTS THEATRE

Still waters run deep and in Terence Rattigan’s world, the wet stuff is never stiller and there’s a muddy whirlpool beneath the calm clear surface. That world is middle England, the time is the 1950s when upper lips were never stiffer. ‘The Browning Version’ was first produced in 1948, and one is more than tempted to dismiss the public school drama as dated. On the surface it is. We are in the world of a fusty old Classics school master about to retire. Mr. Crocker-Harris is known by the boys of the lower fifth as ‘Crock’. Old crock he may be, stickler for perfect Greek grammar in Agamemnon.

NATHANIEL PARKER AS MR CROCKER HARRIS

But beneath Crock’s repressed emotions is a world of pain. His wife is unfaithful, the boys seem to dislike him, and the school’s head appears glad to get rid of the old chap. Nathaniel Parker is outstanding as the retiring teacher who is taking nothing with him but pain and regret. Rattigan’s mastery of emotional landscapes is a masterclass in playwriting. He beautifully shifts the dramatic gears so smoothly that you never hear the crunches. Layer after layer of plot is served cold like the marriage between Crock and his wayward wife. Here Lolita Chakrabarti fails to match Parker’s portrayal of the tragic figure. Her delivery was flat, and it was hard to believe that she had been the long-term spouse of old Crocker.

Parker dominated the stage and provided a deeply moving reading of a man who has to come to terms with what seems like a life wasted. But there is light as well as dark in this fine play. There are tremendously moving moments as for instance when one of his pupils gives the old teacher a gift – a copy of the Browning version of the Greek play. Was this given sincerely or not? A life depends on the answer.

Photo: Manuel Harlan