Some Hare and Rattigan

Nicholas takes the role of Andrew Crocker-Harris in Rattigan’s The Browning Version which plays in a double bill with David Hare’s South Downs in the Minerva Theatre from September 2-October 8.

In the Hare, which is receiving its world premiere, Nicholas takes the role of the Rev Eric Dewley.

“The combination of a 20th century one-act classic and a new play by David Hare as a complementary piece is just so exciting,” Nicholas says.

“They both deal with school life, and there are related themes in David’s play. There is also a certain humour in David’s play, which is a very good contrast - not to say that the Rattigan is without humour. But certainly in South Downs there is David’s rather delicious, dry, slightly-acerbic comic vision.”

To many, Rattigan seemed very much the theatre of the establishment, while Hare is anything but.

“Rattigan was famously not a fan of the theatre of ideas, plays by people like Bernard Shaw and Ibsen, that sort of thing, which is what David Hare certainly is, among many other ingredients, so there is that difference as well. But actually Rattigan claimed never to have voted Tory in his life! I think Rattigan is actually a rather delicious mix of where he stood socially.”

As for Crocker-Harris: “I think what Rattigan found in him was, I suppose, a boiled down essence of one element of what we traditionally see as an Englishman. The surface is forever a sort of shield. Whatever happens, what goes on underneath must never be revealed - and that’s a very English thing. I don’t know whether it still is so much now…

“I don’t think that Rattigan was particularly a fan of (emotional repression), but the play is really about loss of potential. It’s about a couple - particularly Crocker-Harris - that have made accommodations. He does what he has to do in order to get through life, and in order to do that he has this carapace that he will not let anyone get under.”

Tickets on 01243 781312.