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THE BROWNING VERSION
by Terence Rattigan
and SWAN SONG
by Anton Chekhov

Starring PETER BOWLES
Directed by PETER HALL

It is classics master Andrew Crocker-Harris’s last day at an English public school. His health is failing, his pupils dislike him and his marriage to the venomous Millie is disintegrating. As a succession of visitors, revelations and betrayals force the former scholar to re-examine the debris of his life and career, his heart is overwhelmingly touched when a young student offers an unexpected gesture of kindness.

First performed in 1948, Terence Rattigan received his second Ellen Terry Award for The Browning Version (the first was won two years earlier for The Winslow Boy). His other work includes The Deep Blue Sea, French Without Tears and Separate Tables.

The Browning Version is accompanied by another classic one-act play, Chekhov’s Swan Song. An elderly Russian actor wakes up in his dressing room in an almost empty theatre after his final performance. As he laments the profession which turned him from a serious actor into a clown, he shares some of his greatest moments with the stage prompt.

Peter Bowles is one of Britain's most distinguished actors whose starring roles on television include To The Manor Born, The Bounder and The Irish RM. Recent West End performances include Hay Fever, The Old Masters and Sleuth and last year he delighted audiences across the country in the major UK tour of Ayckbourn’s Relatively Speaking.

Sir Peter Hall is one of the UK’s most prolific and distinguished directors of plays, films and operas. His recent outstanding successes at Cambridge Arts Theatre include Uncle Vanya, Old Times and Amy’s View.

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