Review: The Browning Version

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Photos: Jack Western

It was with vague memories of English literature A-level that I tagged along to view the Drama Barn’s latest offering: The Browning Version. The play had been important to my old teacher who expressed a deep affinity with the protagonist, failed schoolmaster Andrew Crocker-Harris, otherwise known as ‘The Croc’.

The play is set in Crocker-Harris’s living room, which he will soon evict as he spends his last days before retirement speculating upon his time at the unnamed 1940s public school. As characters such as his domineering, cheating wife Millie, fellow schoolmaster Frank Hunter and smarmy headmaster Mr Frobisher enter, we painfully witness Crocker-Harris’s descent into emotional turmoil, as blow by blow he is knocked down to an exceptionally fragile state.

The casting is terrific, as Frankie Mitchell plays Millie with knife-sharp cruelty, and Tiarnan Cotter as Taplow is convincingly boyish. Other notable performances came from Mrs Gilbert, played by Victoria Evans, who shone for the brief glimpse she graced the stage. Peter Marshall as Mr Frobisher spoke with a plumminess that was difficult to understand at times, yet he portrayed the flakiness and smug falseness of a headmaster compellingly. Without a doubt the stand out performance came from Toby King, who played ‘The Croc’ with believable matter of factness. With every “I quite understand” in response to mounting disappointments, his face subtly mirrored his intense inner emotion. Whilst in a larger theatre this would have been less effective, the intimate setting of the Drama Barn allowed such small gestures.

Praise must be given where it’s due for the set design, as the 1940s schoolmaster’s living room was instantly recognisable – apart from one rather out of place purple plastic telephone. The use of the props was relatively sparing, with Rattigan’s intuitive script instead propelling the play forward: crammed full of teacher jokes, hints at class tensions and witty insights into the politics of becoming a ‘successful’ teacher.

Nevertheless, The Browning Version was an engaging yet simplistic performance. The powerfully delivered strength Crocker-Harris found towards the end gave the play a glimmer of hope after the anticlimactic nature throughout, which parallelled Crocker-Harris’s perception of his own life as a schoolmaster. Witnessing the emotional breakdown of a man dubbed ‘The Himmler of the Lower Sixth’ will make you reconsider how you treated your teachers at school, who may have cared more than you realised.