Overview

SOUTH DOWNS World Premiere
By David Hare

1962: a Public School on the South Downs.
John Blakemore is a solitary boy who finds it impossible either to understand or to adapt to the ways of the school. His adolescent earnestness puts off teacher and pupil alike. And
now suddenly he seems in danger of losing his only friend.

David Hare’s emotional new play, written at the invitation of the Rattigan Estate as a response to The Browning Version, is a meditation on learning, faith and teenage friendship, played
against the backdrop of a Britain still fighting to maintain an established rule.

David Hare’s plays include The Power of Yes, Stuff Happens, The Vertical Hour, Amy’s View and Skylight; his screenplays include The Hours and The Reader.

Jeremy Herrin is Deputy Artistic Director of the Royal Court where he has directed David Hare’s The Vertical Hour as well as The Priory and The Heretic; he has also directed The Family
Reunion at the Donmar and Statement of Regret at the National Theatre.

THE BROWNING VERSION
By Terence Rattigan

Classics master Andrew Crocker-Harris, brilliant scholar turned unpopular teacher, is retiring from a public school to teach in a crammer. His health is crumbling as is his marriage to the brittle
Millie. She resents her husband’s lack of success and is openly dallying with a well-liked younger teacher, Frank Hunter.

Over the years Crocker-Harris has hidden his self-loathing by playing the petty tyrant in the classroom, but suddenly his buttoned-up disappointment and humiliation are released by
a small gesture of unexpected kindness from one of the boys.

Poignant and beautifully crafted, The Browning Version brilliantly explores the complexity of the human heart.

Associate Director Angus Jackson’s credits for Chichester include Bingo, Wallenstein, Funny Girl, The Waltz of the Toreadors and Carousel; he has also directed Elmina’s Kitchen, Fix Up, Rocket to the Moon and David Hare’s The Power
of Yes for the National Theatre.

South Downs and The Browning Version Sponsored by

Festival 2011

Kenwood

Delonghi