Following a critically acclaimed and sold out run as part of Chichester Festival Theatre's Season in 2011, Neal Street Productions co-produced South Downs and The Browning Version with Robert Fox and Playful Productions to transfer the double bill of Terence Rattigan's one-act masterpiece and David Hare's specially commissioned companion piece to the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End.
South Downs is set at Lancing College in Sussex where a pin sharp young pupil is cut off from the rest of the school by virtue of his own intellect, background and questioning spirit. In an unlikely meeting with the mother of another pupil, her generosity of spirit and sound advice present the boy with a world of kindness and possibility.
Rattigan's The Browning Version presents the retiring Classics master Mr Crocker-Harris, tired, dried-up and an abhorrent tyrant over his pupils. A simple act of generosity by one of Crocker-Harris' pupils brings out the deep-rooted dignity and heartbreaking sadness that give this play its power.
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