The Browning Version
by Terence Rattigan
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In Terence Rattigan's classic drama, an aging schoolmaster at an English secondary school faces the harsh judgments of his students, his fellow teachers, and his vicious and spiteful wife. But can a lone act of kindness from a sympathetic student change his heart?This recording also includes an interview with Michael Darlow, the author of "Terence Rattigan: The Man and His Work".An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:Steven Brand as Frank HunterMartin Jarvis as Andrew show more Crocker-HarrisIan Ogilvy as The HeadmasterDarren Richardson as Peter GilbertDevon Sorvari as Mrs. GilbertKate Steele as Millie Crocker-HarrisDaniel Stewart as John TaplowDirected by Peter Levin. Recorded by L.A. Theatre Works before a live audience. show lessTags
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This play cemented Terence Rattigan’s reputation as a serious, mature playwright. It is viewed as one of his best works, and one of the best one-acts ever written. First performed at the Phoenix Theatre, London, England, on September 8, 1948, The Browning Version was coupled with another one-act by Rattigan entitled Harlequinade under the umbrella name, Playbill. This show ran for 245 performances, and Rattigan received the Ellen Terry Award for The Browning Version, his second. (The first was won two years earlier for The Winslow Boy.)
The Browning Version concerns the life of Andrew Crocker-Harris, a classics schoolmaster at a British public school. Andrew is disliked by his unfaithful wife Millie, his colleagues, and his students. show more Rattigan based the character and the story of The Browning Version on a classics master he had at school as a student. Though only a one-act play, The Browning Version is a well-crafted and complete psychological study, indicative of his future direction as a playwright. show less
The Browning Version concerns the life of Andrew Crocker-Harris, a classics schoolmaster at a British public school. Andrew is disliked by his unfaithful wife Millie, his colleagues, and his students. show more Rattigan based the character and the story of The Browning Version on a classics master he had at school as a student. Though only a one-act play, The Browning Version is a well-crafted and complete psychological study, indicative of his future direction as a playwright. show less
An excellent one-act. The outcome surprised me in that the main character appeared to be doomed to a hellish existence with his whorish wife, but Rattigan suggests that that may not be so. He leaves one with a feeling of hope after all.
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Rattigan, who had been a playwright since leaving Oxford University at the age of 22, boasted of his workmanship---"I believe sloppy construction, untidy technique, and lack of craftsmanship to be great faults"---and of his ability to please the British playgoer, the archetypical "Aunt Edna," a "middle-class, middle-aged maiden lady with time on show more her hands." Not surprisingly, he fell out of favor in the Britain of the 1960s. (He had never been particularly popular in the United States, which looked on his work as inspirationally lacking.) At the time of his death, criticism, still taking him at his word, faintly praised Rattigan's expositions, his management of interleaving characters (as in Separate Tables, 1954), and his artful episodic development in Ross (1960). But Darlow and Hodson's revelations of Rattigan's tormented personal life have helped readers acknowledge that, despite imposed or sentimental endings, his plays are often full of genuine anguish---in the relations of parents and children (Man and Boy, 1963) and obsessed lovers (The Deep Blue Sea, 1952), and in recognition of weakness that vitiates heroism (Ross, 1960, which is based on the life of T. E. Lawrence. And revivals of the 1948 play The Browning Version (at the National Theatre) and of The Winslow Boy (1946) moved the critic Harold Hobson to concede that "there are many things in Rattigan that have not yet been properly perceived." (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1948
- Related movies
- The Browning Version (1994 | IMDb); The Browning Version (1951 | IMDb); The Browning Version (1985 | IMDb); The Browning Version (1955 | IMDb)
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- Members
- 100
- Popularity
- 324,078
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.92)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 9
