In an early scene Alice describes the kind of woman men want, “Men want a girl who looks like a boy. They want to protect her but she must be a survivor. And she must come… like a train…but with…elegance.”

Is she describing herself or is this what she wants Dan to think about her?  Later, Alice who seems to be a prime observer describing men and their emotional hang ups: “We say, Where’s your baggage? They deny all knowledge of it… They’re in love…they have none. Then … just as you’re relaxing … a Great Big Juggernaut arrives … with their baggage.  It got held up.  One of the greatest myths men have about women is that we overpack.”  This play is full of wit and nuanced truths.

I appreciated the addition of period music, the songs sung by Alice and the clarinet solo from Arun Ghosh.  There are bodies in the background, a chorus of shadowy others caught up in the theme of a scene.  Soutra Gilmour’s set has a raised scarlet stage with the band and background people in black. 

It is very much set in London with the references to the Victorian Postman’s Park memorials which all the characters visit but in terms of era, little seems to me to have changed except that Barts A&E has closed and moved to Whipps Cross or Whitechapel.