Quartermaine, played by Rowan Atkinson, is a bachelor language teacher in a 1960s language school for foreign students. The entire play is set in the staff room. The clever part of the play in a way is that Quartermaine is the only nice character amongst the self-absorbed failing writers, failing lovers, failing people really. His only defects are that he is dull and utterly useless as a teacher. The tragedy is that no one really wants to spend time with him, although they happily make use of him, and at the end is sacked for being useless, which of course means the end of the only thing he had in life. And that is the end of the play, so it really is a case of a man going out in a whimper, just sitting in his chair contemplating his lack of future, rather than in any heroic bang, like death. So tragi-comedy which ends in a whimper rather than a bang.
Not obviously satisfying. Perhaps because it feels a bit too much like real life. Oh God, maybe I am Quartermaine! No, no...
