Summer 1954 features a double-bill of "Table Number Seven" and "The Browning Version" written by Terence Rattigan.
The atmosphere at The Beauregard Private Hotel, Bournemouth is one of repressed emotions and post-war gentility. In this world of hushed conversations and quiet anonymity, an unlikely friendship develops between a repressed spinster and a retired Army officer. But when a newspaper threatens to reveal the Major’s long-held secret, will the other residents cast him out for good?
Meanwhile, in the heart of the Midlands, a long-serving Classics teacher is on the verge of retirement from his distinguished public school. Diminished by poor health, a crumbling marriage, the disdain of his colleagues and the derision of his pupils, he is given cause to re-examine his life when a young student offers an unexpected gesture of kindness.
Directed by Olivier Award winner James Dacre (Four Quarters, Blue/Orange), Rattigan’s one act masterpieces Table Number Seven, from Separate Tables and The Browning Version are paired together for the first time, capturing one quietly momentous evening seventy years ago.
Stage and screen stars Nathaniel Parker and Dame Siân Phillips lead an ensemble cast.
Summer 1954 is playing at Theatre Royal Bath from 24. October to 2. November 2024 and then at the Cambridge Arts Theatre from 14. November to 16. November 2024.