Peter Bowles

The Browning Version - 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. Not only does she openly resent her husband's lack of success as a schoolmaster but she is carrying on an affair under his nose with the popular young chemistry teacher, Frank Hunter. 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. The Browning Version is performed in a double-bill with another one-act play, Chekhov's Swan Song Swan Song - An elderly Russian wakes up in his dressing room in an almost empty theatre after his final performance. As he laments the profession which turned his from a serious actor into a clown he shares some of his greatest moments with the stage prompt.