The synopsis of John Van Druten’s 1931 play London Wall (filmed twice for television, but rarely seen since) calls to mind a British Mad Men. It’s telling that Matthew Weiner’s series begins on new secretary Peggy Olson’s first day, where, under the guidance of worldly office manager Joan, she quickly discovers that there’s no such [...]

[CONTAINS SPOILERS] Henry James’s 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw is one of the ripest pieces of fiction for re-reading. One never ceases to marvel at Henry’s genius in creating a never-ending debate about whether the notoriously unreliable narrator’s charges were possessed by ghosts, or if she fabricated the whole thing from her repressed [...]

The stereotypical image of the English Civil War is that of clumsy Roundheads and graceful Cavaliers – when I think of this period, it’s Keeping Up Appearance‘s pageant, in which Hyacinth Bucket’s slovenly brother-in-law is deemed a perfect Roundhead, that comes to mind. In Howard Brenton’s densely written play, however, the more aesthetically pleasing Charles [...]

Egad: I adored this show from the very beginning. Dispensing with the original prologue written by playwright Thomas Baker, in which the audience is asked not to  judge Susanna Centlivre’s efforts too harshly as she’s only a woman, we’re instead treated to a celebratory list of British female playwrights from Aphra Behn to Anya Reiss, [...]