![\"TerenceRattigan\"](\"http:\/\/demo.brandingbay.com\/ARL\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/TerenceRattigan-300x200.jpg\")
A classic One-Act play will be performed as a staged reading in Armagh Public Library on Tuesday 7 February 2017 at 7.30pm, when Centre Stage Theatre Company will present \u2018The Browning Version\u2019 by Terence Rattigan, who was one of the most popular dramatists of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n
Roma Tomelty, who directs the play, said \u201cIt seemed very obvious if one wanted to do a play in a Library, it should be about a book, and what a play!\u00a0 It\u2019s also a great opportunity to see it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a one act and not often staged now as it\u2019s not always easy to schedule. The actors will wear a suggestion of costume and will not simply sit at a table reading, so in less than a few minutes the audience will find they have forgotten about the scripts\u201d.<\/p>\n
A moving piece, it deals with the last days of Andrew Crocker-Harris, a dedicated classics master at an English public school.\u00a0 He is disliked by the boys, who nick-name him \u2018The Crock\u2019, and by the staff for his old fashioned attitudes and lack of humour.\u00a0 When, to his great surprise, Taplow, the one pupil who likes and respects him, gives him a copy of Browning\u2019s version of \u2018Agamemnon\u2019, it sets off a chain of events that will change \u2018The Crock\u2019 forever.\u00a0 Meanwhile, his unfaithful wife, her lover who is one of her husband\u2019s teaching colleagues, and his bullish head-master will face a very uncertain future.<\/p>\n
John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave, Albert Finney, Peter Cushing and Peter Bowles are just some of the great actors who have played \u2018The Crock\u2019, and the play has been filmed, winning two Cannes Festival awards, televised and broadcast.<\/p>\n
As is usual with Centre Stage Theatre Company there is a strong local cast, including Colin Carnegie, Mary Moulds, Alex McClay, Mark Claney, Cathan McRoberts, Louise Parker and James Warde Hunter.<\/p>\n
The trustees of the literary estate of Sir Terence Rattigan have generously given the rights of the play free, in support of Armagh Public Library.<\/p>\n
Keeper of Armagh Public Library, the Very Revd Gregory Dunstan, said, \u201cThis is a most generous initiative of Centre Stage Theatre Company, in support of the Library.\u00a0 It is not often that Terence Rattigan is performed in Armagh.\u00a0 The Long Room is a wonderful, intimate venue for an event like this and we look forward to an enthralling evening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Admission to the performance will be free, with donations gratefully received for the work of the Library. A minimum donation of \u00a310.00 is suggested.\u00a0 Light refreshments will be served after the performance, with an opportunity to meet the cast.\u00a0 For further information, please contact the Library by telephoning 028 37523142.<\/p>\n
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