What Every Woman Knows

How very satisfying to encounter an absorbing, well made Edwardian play, part comedy part emotional drama, whose turns of plot and character come up fresh and new.

Barrie’s play is a highly entertaining examination of the idea that behind every great man there is a strong woman.

Maggie, being a canny Scot, understands that her unimaginative MP husband must never know that the wit and sharpness others find in his speeches are put there by her when she types them up for him. Her ability to survive and thrive in his high-powered world is thanks to her never behaving like other people.

In Irene Allan she has an ideal interpreter. She shows us a Maggie able to hide her sharp intelligence behind the domesticity of knitting; able to convince everyone, with the exception of the Comtesse de la Briere, that she is a wee, colourless, Scots mouse.

As the gloriously stolid John Shand MP, Christopher Daley is superb; he gets a lot of laughs out of his character’s total and absolute lack of humour. The mark of how good the acting is becomes clear when you realise that an almost palpable bond has grown between them – even when their relationship seems closest to being split asunder.

There are some richly drawn supporting characters. Martyn James, Greg Powrie and Alan Steele are a rock-solid non-intellectual group as Maggie’s family. Gillian Ford is Lady Sybil, the perfect empty-headed society beauty. Elizabeth Graham is delightful as the worldly-wise Comtesse and Robin Harvey Edwards is an utterly convincing senior government official.

John Durnin’s direction is flowing and always absorbing, even when it has the courage to hold silences for quite long periods. Adrian Rees’ sets are superb and his costumes sumptuous.

This is a timely and richly enjoyable revival of what proves to be a very fine play indeed.