Two for the price of one.

The plays were Chekhov’s Swansong, where an elderly clown drunkenly regrets his failure to have been a serious actor, whilst an aged prompt - the only person left in the deserted theatre - tries to comfort him. Gradually one realised that the old soak was Peter Bowles and one marvelled at his ability to play two demanding leading parts in one afternoon. But The Browning Version was the thing for me. Since producing Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea and Separate Tables in another life, he has been one of my favourite playwrights and no-one does desperate women like himself. He was gay you know.

There was a 20 minute interval between the plays – surely necessary for Peter Bowles to transform himself from an old drunk into the impeccable school master Crocker-Harris. We were wedged right in the centre of the stalls and I was telling Margaret how the beautiful decoration on the theatre walls reminded me of the Taj Mahal when - oh joy – there was Sir Peter Hall- looking more like Fu Manchu than ever, returning to his seat at the rear. It's years since I last saw him and he has aged quite a bit but the afternoon proved he has lost none of his talent to get actors to be amazing. The luck of the draw- one of our ladies was sitting near him and got her programme signed.

Some of you may remember Michael Redgrave giving the performance of his career in the film with Jean Kent and Nigel (sex on legs) Patrick. When Jean and Nigel had their illicit affair, it was steamy windows all round. Crocker-Harris is an embittered, school master who feels his life has been a failure. His health is failing; his marriage is failing and with the derision of his pupils life is very bleak until a young boy, Taplow, one of his pupils, gives him a present which makes him think perhaps he hasn’t been a complete washout His wife resents her husband’s lack of success and is having an affair with a young master.

To complete his despair Crocker Harris is being forced to retire with the probability of no pension. The unexpected kindness from one of his students touches him deeply. Margaret had wondered if The Browning Version was to do with Robert Browning. Come to think of it there was a Browning connection; Taplow buys Crocker-​Harris the Brown­ing ver­sion of the Agamem­non, and inscribes, in Greek, the ded­i­ca­tion “God from afar looks gra­ciously on a gentle master.”

I love it when a combination of the skill of the writer and the art of the actors make me want to shout and encourage or hiss and boo. I didn’t I promise you but there were a few gasps. It is a heart- breaking story of remorse and atonement and we both felt transported by the end of the play when we helped to raise the roof. We walked down to the coach in that dream like state that happens when one has been touched by something magical on stage.

PS Noticing the peg top skirt, fitted bosom, silk stockings and heels reminded me of how very sexy our formal dress was in the forties before the New Look. The air positively sizzled with it.