'Would it interest you to see the new timetable I've drafted for next term?" asks Andrew Crocker-Harris. "I think it has the merit of clarity." Crocker-Harris is just the man for timetable compiling, for he is neat and precise. It's no surprise to see that he has perfect creases in his trousers. But, it soon appears, he has not been a success as a classics master at an English public school. At the outset of his career he dreamt of becoming a housemaster, even a headship might have beckoned one day. Eighteen years later, he is being unceremoniously hustled out of the door following a stress-related heart attack, the only future a badly paid job at a crammer.

Although the dusty world of a minor public school may have changed dramatically since Terence Rattigan wrote The Browning Version in 1948, many of the issues the play raises are very much alive and kicking in the 2007 workplace, as this excellent Oxford Theatre Guild production (director Janet Bolam) makes clear. All depends, of course, on the actor playing Crocker-Harris, and here OTG has found a real winner in Nick Quartley. In no way do I mean to be patronising when I say that no professional actor could more movingly capture Crocker-Harris's crushing inferiority complex, and terribly thin skin.

Some scenes are toe-curling in their embarrassment, as they should be. For instance, the unctuous and self-important headmaster (a delicious cameo from Colin Burnie), has tactlessly allowed Crocker-Harris's successor and his wife (Alex Rogers and Grace Mountain) to look round the living accommodation the evening before Crocker-Harris leaves. This scene is memorably acted and directed, as is the moment when a fifth-form pupil (well played by Josh Mullett-Sadones) shyly presents Crocker-Harris with a leaving present, a Browning translation of Aeschylus. Crocker-Harris breaks down in tears at this unexpected kindness.

From Claire Denton's performance as Millie Crocker-Harris, it's entirely obvious that husband and wife have nothing in common whatsoever. Sharp and rude, Millie has no sympathy with, or interest in, her husband's problems - except when she discovers that he has meekly agreed to leave without a pension. Meanwhile she has been having an affair with another master (played, with appropriate awkwardness, by Oliver Baird).

The Browning Version being short, it was originally paired with Harlequinade, a practice that OTG revives. Rattigan's send-up of the theatrical profession isn't in the same league as, say, Noises Off, but OTG have a great deal of fun with it nonetheless, with particularly nice supporting performances from Alex Rogers as the harassed stage manager, and Barbara Denton as the 'retired' actress who won't go away.

But top marks to Simon Vail and Gloria Deacon, who hilariously capture a pair of distinctly mature actors about to open their Romeo and Juliet just across the Northamptonshire border in Brackley: "Darling," wails Juliet from her balcony, "Are you going to make that little jump on opening night? If so, please warn me beforehand, it's most unsettling."

The Browning Version and Harlequinade continue tonight and tomorrow at the Oxford Playhouse. Tickets: 01865 305305, or online at www.oxfordplayhouse.com