Rare Lillian Hellman play at the Donmar "…To hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago in order to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent and dishonorable.…
The central character to the play, and the main draw, is Madame Arcati. This part could have been written for Jennifer Saunders, it gives her plenty of opportunity to display her excellent comic talent and she does not disappoint. She has us all laughing with her sitting knees akimbo in the most unladylike posture, showing the inside of her thighs. Not exactly Sharon Stone! We love it when she arrives after a long bike ride, flapping her dress at the neckline and then hemline to cool off.
Dan's toasts were sexually explicit and very funny, for instance "Gross Indecency" and "Sodomy". All three men are very different characters; Guy is socially awkward but anxious to please and his knitting is a running joke; John looks beautiful and seems caught up in his own thoughts and Daniel, in a flying visit, is personality plus with loads of sexual double entendre.