Whatever drew Kristin Scott Thomas and Lily James to Penelope Skinner’s shambling, implausible exploration of the raw deal women get utterly fails to materialise on stage. The characters are underdeveloped, the narrative heavy with exposition and the scenario riffs aimlessly on Sunset Boulevard (down the road, much better) and Great Expectations.
There are some funny and some daring moments in Ian Rickson’s production, and we get to see KST go OTT as a scenery-chewing former actress, Elaine Dailey, emerging from 30 years hiding in a house which is named Lyonesse after a lost land and is slowly sliding, from erosion and the weight of the play's signposting, into the Cornish sea. Scott Thomas is one of our finest dramatic stage stars but – how to put this? – there’s very little difference between someone pretending to be a hammy performer and an actual hammy performer.
