Festival Theatre, Malvern – until 9th November 2024
Reviewed by Courie Amado Juneau
5*****
Summer 1954 pairs two works by playwright Terence Rattigan. The first half presented us with the weighty Table Number Seven: a tale of a boarding house and its residents who discover one amongst them, Major Pollock, has been suspected of propositioning men. The whispers and zealous vigilantism kicks into gear as the Major faces his own nature and what that means for him, his friendships and his immediate future.
The Major was wonderfully wrought with fear, angst, and ultimately an inner nobility by Nathaniel Parker giving us a commanding figure who gradually showed his vulnerability until he was totally emotionally prone. A superb character study. Sian Phillips was equally fantastic as his nemesis Mrs Railton-Bell. Her old fashioned morality was sympathetically portrayed, amply showing why she has commanded stage and screen during her glittering career.
Miss Meacham (Richenda Carey) was an absolute joy with her self assured and independent thought. She was my favourite character, along with Jeremy Neumark Jones’s portrayal of Charles Stratton (for much the same reason). Sybil Railton-Bell, touchingly played by Alexandra Dowling, also deserves special mention for a magnificent performance blending vulnerability with inner fortitude.
I wonder what people in the year 2100 will make of our current attitudes. Probably the same as we think of the attitudes displayed here, from the 1950’s… It gives one pause to ponder.
The second act was The Browning Version (1948). Set in a boarding school, it centres around Master Crocker-Harris who is on the eve of a change of schools due to an 18 year gestational malaise and period of ill health.
Nathaniel Parker (as Crocker “Crock”-Harris) and Lolita Chakrabarti (as his wife) were fabulous in the first act and even more so as they returned for the second half with much meatier characters. I really enjoyed their full throttled, committed embodiment of both. They had me on the edge of my seat, watching (at times) from behind my hands.
Again, as in the first act, a superb cast supported the leads with Bertie Hawes giving us a suitably energetic schoolboy Taplow. A small but pivotal role I nonetheless loved it. Simon Coates (as Headmaster) was also very enjoyable and believable; piling yet more disappointment on poor Crock. And Jeremy Neumark Jones again graced the stage as Master Frank Hunter, giving this rather selfish character a likability and (somewhat) final redemption.
James Dacre’s programme notes state; “in both conclusions we see the green shoots of people defying the orthodoxies of the time, taking small but decisive steps out of the shadows… …and becoming a person in their own right. We see people starting to live truthfully and think independently”. Insightful stuff. In that respect, both works are linked by a common theme – and one that is as vital today as it has ever been.
This was a highly enjoyable evening’s entertainment with a superb cast, inventive revolving set and beautiful presentation. A thought provoking mirror held up to our own morals and attitudes, there’s much to think about here and even more to delight in. I have no hesitation to wholeheartedly recommend this fabulous pairing.