“I may have been a brilliant scholar, but I was woefully
ignorant of the facts of life.”
Given that last year was the first time I had made the trip
to Chichester and took in the vast majority of their 2011 Festival, it is perhaps
a little ironic that of the five plays I saw there, a third one has now opened
in London. But I have no problems revisiting quality theatre and the double
bill of
South Downs and The Browning Version is certainly that. As part of the
Rattigan centenary celebrations at CFT, David Hare was invited to write a
response to The Browning Version and the two public school-set plays were
mounted together in the intimacy of the Minerva Theatre to great effect. It has
now transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre (surely forever destined to be
known as ‘formerly the Comedy…’) where I caught the last preview with my Aunty
Jean who was down for the night.
And it was a great decision. I enjoyed Jeremy Herrin’s South
Downs again, but to my mind it is The Browning Version, directed by Angus
Jackson, that has become richer, deeper and thus even more heartbreaking and by
any rights, ought to become one of the hottest tickets in town.
My original review of the plays can be read here and the cast has transferred almost in its entirety (I think just one boy has been replaced for the West End run) so I won’t say too much more here
aside from a few further reflections. Particularly, I don’t think I gave enough
credit to Alex Lawther’s Blakemore and Liam Morton’s Taplow first time round, who
both made their professional debut at the Minerva and who both produce empathetically
balanced schoolboys with nuanced mixes of eagerness, thoughtlessness and naïveté,
boyhood crushes and unaffected good-naturedness.
Nicholas Farrell is excellent, particularly as
Crocker-Harris in Rattigan’s classic - his ageing Classics master emotionally
buttoned up as tight as he can muster and painfully ashamed of the feelings
that he can no longer hide as the reality of his final few days at this school catch
up on him, we can see and feel Farrell castigating himself for what he sees as
weakness. But it is Anna Chancellor who is genuinely outstanding for me. In South
Downs, she’s the self-described kind of mum that everyone wishes they had, opening
the eyes of the blinkered Blakemore with a loquacious elegance and expansive
kindness. And then after the interval, she’s is simply incendiary as Millie Crocker-Harris,
limited and frustrated in her marriage and circumstances, the desperation with
which she claws at her lover’s body (Mark Umbers in fine linen-suited form –
and I don’t remember AC going for his buttocks with quite so much vigour in
Chichester!) and the glacial cruelty as her frustrations explode are just
breath-taking to watch.
I was impressed at how well the productions transferred from
the open stage of the Minerva into the Harold Pinter (in my mind, I hate this
theatre but the view from the front of the Royal Circle really was very good, I
should remember this!): the choirboy-filled interludes of South Downs make for
great atmosphere and the single drawing-room set for the second half is
beautifully dressed by Tom Scutt. Undoubtedly, I prefer The Browning Version,
it’s a multi-layered and achingly beautiful play in which Rattigan’s enforced
homosexual repression finds the most touching of voices. Hare’s South Downs, to
my mind at least, panders a little more to an enduring interest in the public school
world that holds little interest to my comprehensive-educated mind, but ultimately
fits in well with this double bill which goes a long way to show us, no matter
how small it is perceived to be or to whom it is given, just how far an act of
kindness can travel to truly lighten the spirit.
Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes (with interval)
Booking until 21st July
Labels: Alex Lawther, Andrew Woodall, Anna Chancellor, Bradley Hall, David Hare, Jonathan Bailey, Liam Morton, Mark Umbers, Rob Heaps, Stella Gonet, Terence Rattigan, Tom Spink