Play review - "The Browning Version" by Terence Rattigan

 Elegant jewel from Rattigan. Easy to mock on one hand - as William Goldman says, the wife is a whore, the husband is weak, the only wisdom lies in bachelors and young boys. But he does write with empathy and sympathy, Croker Harris is another Rattigan character with a low sex drive so the wife goes looking for it elsewhere. She's a snob but she's got nothing else. I thought maybe she could've been given a little speech. The tyranny of the headmaster and the world - polite, dogged, unknowingly patronising - is well conveyed, as well as the fact that, well, the Crock probably wasn't a very good teacher, with his self indulgent puns. The play doesn't always take easy sides. Maybe it does for the guy Frank. But the scene where he breaks down is powerful as is the reveal it was a put up, and his small act of defiance at the end is rousing.