THE GUARDIAN described it as "a conservationist comedy", the Sunday Express said "one of the sharpest, wittiest, most passionate and elegant plays of the year". However you view it, this play is pure entertainment.
Lotte is the successful manager of a Trust, which opens stately homes to the public. Lettice is a guide at one of the stately homes. Unfortunately the house has had a very undistinguished career, in fact "it is the dullest house in England." To Lettice, the daughter of an actress who led an all female troupe touring Shakespeare in rural France, this is a challenge she cannot resist. The tours of Fustian House become more and more dramatic, featuring stories of murder by herbs and tragic, crippled heiresses. Lettice is of course found out and Lotte has no choice but to sack her.
From this unlikely beginning a curious friendship begins to develop. The uptight Lotte and the overly theatrical Lettice find they have a great deal in common. They both revere the past with its colour and larger than life characters. They admire idiosyncrasy in behaviour and respect quality in architecture. Together they lament the steady loss of standards in society and they are both appalled by the buildings that they see being put up all over London. Their friendship blossoms in an eccentric but harmless way as they meet each Friday to act out a famous deaths and trials from history. All is well until they dramatise the execution of Charles I. Then things get a little out of hand.
The dialogue is barbed and very funny as the two women get to know each other. Lettice shares nuggets of culinery information drawn from the sixteenth century as well as a wealth of historical anecdotes. Under Lettice's flamboyant influence Lotte begins to relax revealing an equally passionate nature with a dangerous tendency to take radical action under pressure. These middle-aged, genteel women both have a great capacity to surprise.
The play begins with four unforgettable tours of Fustian House when a motley collection of sightseers witness Queen Elizabeth I falling down a staircase closely followed (but one hundred years later) by a large dog and an heiress. It ends with a bewitched lawyer momentarily caught up in the magic of Lotte and Lettice's world.
Jeanette Hoile and Marcelle Clow play the leads ably supported by John Hartnett, Helen Davies, Nigel Oatway and Helen Chadney. I am privileged to have a backstage team consisting of Jane Codd as S.M., working with Matthew Lyne and Yvonne Walters. Gareth Barker has designed the lighting, with Lionel Monks operating. Brian Fretwell is on sound and Anton Krause has saved the day over and over again as my P.A.. The set is designed by Alan Buckman. Last, but far from least, Paul Fortune is our prompt.
There are serious themes in this play, if you want to look for them. But if you just want a good night's entertainment with plenty to laugh at, come and see this show. This is one to enjoy.
