Tim Luscombe
The Browning Version & Harlequinade
Location: West End
Date: 1988
The Browning Version & Harlequinade are two one-act plays by the great Terrence Rattigan, which have nothing to do with each other but have always been played together.
They had traditionally been played with the tragedy of the Browning Version first and then the light Harlequinade as a kind of comic dessert. I had the (to me) unremarkable notion to perform them comedy first, in order to get the audience warmed up and the hit them with the pathos. Anyway, my small thought was regarded by the press as an idea of great genius, and I was proclaimed the West End’s new wunderkind by more than one paper. To me the success of the production had more to do with the staggering performances of Dorothy Tutin and Paul Eddington. Carl Toms designed magnificently, as ever.
For this production, I was nominated for a Lawrence Olivier Award.