The Browning Version |
Elegant Edward |
by Terence Rattigan
|
by Edgar Wallace, adapted by Gertrude Jennings & AC Boulton
|
The Browning Version |
Elegant Edward |
by Terence Rattigan
|
by Edgar Wallace, adapted by Gertrude Jennings & AC Boulton
|
28-29? January 1955
Chelsfield Players celebrated their return to the rebuilt Village Hall with a double bill of sharply contrasting short plays. The Browning Version is Terence Rattigan’s celebrated tale of remorse and atonement. Andrew Crocker-Harris, an embittered, middle-aged schoolmaster, begins to feel that his life has been a failure. Diminished by poor health, a crumbling marriage and the derision of his pupils, the once brilliant scholar is compelled to re-examine his life when a young student offers an unexpected gesture of kindness – a gift of a copy of the translation by Robert Browning of Aeschylus’s ancient play Agamemnon. The reviewer described it as “an hour of cruelty” with Bill Loraine “excellent”. In a lighter vein, the second play was Elegant Edward, an adaptation of the Edgar Wallace stories about a Victorian gentleman crook. In search of a famous necklace a common cracksman enters a flat, to be confronted by a gentleman thief whom he takes to be his intended victim. After a good deal of verbal sparring, the former is got rid of by the latter, who, being subsequently surprised by the flat’s mistress, accounts for his presence by posing as a neighbouring tenant, anxious to protect her – in her husband’s absence – from the departed burglar. His strategy succeeds but results in disappointment, as it turns out that the necklace is merely an imitation of the valuable original. The latter show was first performed by the Players during the war and returned a decade later with largely the same cast: Cast: Elegant Edward
Edward – Teddy Hollands Mrs Traherne – Ellen George Burglar Bill – Norman Nash Policemen – unknown (but one called Tommy) |
Cast: The Browning Version
Crocker-Harris – Bill Loraine Millie Crocker-Harris – Joan Westfold Frank Hunter – Norman Nash John Taplow – Paul Coupland Dr Frobisher – WAT Jenner Peter Gilbert – Trevor Hart Mrs Gilbert – Audrey Westcott Stage managers – Teddy Hollands, Gladys Hollands “Effect production” (?) – Harold Hart |
Email
|