E. Martin Browne

Elliott Martin Browne was born in Zeals, Wiltshire, on 29 January 1900, the third son of Colonel Percival John Browne. He was educated at Eton College, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he studied modern history and theology. Between 1923 and 1930 he worked at a variety of jobs related to drama, in Kent, Doncaster, London and in the United States as assistant professor of drama at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh. In 1924 he married the actress Henzie Raeburn, who subsequently appeared in many of his productions. They had two sons. == First work with Eliot ==

In 1930 he returned to England and was appointed by George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, to be director of religious drama for the diocese. One of Browne's early assignments was to organise a pageant, The Rock, to raise funds for the building of Anglican churches. At the request of Bishop Bell, T. S. Eliot wrote a series of choruses linking the loosely historical scenes of the pageant, which was played by amateurs and presented at Sadler's Wells Theatre for a fortnight's run in summer 1934. In March 1939 he directed Eliot's second play, The Family Reunion, in London and in the same year he launched a touring company which he called the "Pilgrim Players", whose programme was dominated by the plays of Eliot and, to a lesser degree, of James Bridie (O. H. Mavor), the Scottish dramatist. These tours continued until 1948. == Postwar ==

In 1945 Browne took over the 150-seater Mercury Theatre, Notting Hill Gate, and devoted it for the next three years to the production of modern verse plays, with first productions of plays by Christopher Fry, Meanwhile, he continued his collaboration with T. S. Eliot, directing The Cocktail Party in 1949, The Confidential Clerk in 1953, and The Elder Statesman in 1958. and from 1962 to 1965 he was drama adviser to Coventry Cathedral, directing the mediaeval mystery plays there in 1962 and 1964. In 1967 and 1968 he directed at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, the plays being Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, Thornton Wilder's Our Town and The Long Christmas Dinner, and the mediaeval morality play, Everyman. He was appointed CBE in 1952. Following the death of Henzie Raeburn, in 1974 he married Audrey Johnson. He died in the Middlesex Hospital, Westminster, on 27 April 1980, survived by his second wife. == Books ==