So often I go to the Finborough Theatre in Earls Court and delight in the plays the Artistic Director Neil McPherson has selected to revive or produce for the very first time.  In this case, The Truth About Blayds is a play from Alan Alexander Milne which the New York wit Dorothy Parker called “a fine and merciless and honest play.”  Now AA Milne is best known for his creation of the bear Winnie-the-Pooh and the inhabitants of 100 Acre Wood, but he wrote many plays and if they are of the quality of this one, then I want to see them. 

The sheer detail of Alex Marker’s set is impressive: the drawing room and study of the house in Portman Square of the poet Oliver Blayds on his 90th birthday. A Georgian fireplace and Georgian chairs, gentle morning light from the blinded windows at the rear with the outline of leaves and a magnificent period desk.  An oil painting of the poet dominates the room.

Admitted to this inner sanctum is the literary critic, AL Royce (Rupert Wickham) who has been granted an audience with the great man on his special day.  Many more have been turned away.  Royce is being welcomed by the poet’s grandson and namesake, Oliver Blayds-Conway and his sister Septima (Lucy Jamieson) who is named after one of her grandfather’s famous poems.  The house is full of letters from the rich and literary famous including an autographed letter from Queen Victoria.