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. ( )

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. 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. ( )

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