The censors tried to come for this early Noel Coward play when it premiered 100 years ago, and it’s not difficult to see why. The story of two married women who speak frankly about not just having extra-marital sex but enjoying it, and getting incredibly drunk in the process, must have been a bit much in an era when the Lord Chamberlain still approved every play that landed on stages.
Little revived now - the last major production was 25 years ago - its shock value is diminished by a century. So the piece stands as a Coward curiosity, nowhere near the highs of hits like Blithe Spirit and Private Lives, and it needs a really strong production to justify its dusting off.
