Penny Royal by Lucy Roslyn. The Finborough Theatre , 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 to 6 August 2022. 4****. William Russell.

There are audiences for plays and for all sorts of reason I am not one for this tale of sisterhood under stress by Lucy Roslin based loosely on Edith Wharton’s novella The Old Maid. I spent at least the first twenty minutes convinced it was a Saphic tale as the two women, who were chalk to cheese, shared an outsize sweater the tall one was wearing only to discover that one of them, the small one Daphne (Madison Clare) suffers from Premature Ovarian Insufficiency and the other was her big sister Christine (Lucy Roslyn) stepping in to help out in the only way she knew – by donating her eggs, As I left feeling totally at sea the two women in front were enthusing to the theatre manager that it was a wonderful play and as frequent theatregoers the best thing they had seen in ages. In other words I was quite the wrong person to review it but the set is lovely, and the performances under director Josh Roche are very good. It is, for the right audience, a worthwhile play.

Christine: Lucy Roslyn.
Daphne: Madison Clare.

Director: Josh Roche.
Set and Costume Designer: Sophie Thomas.
Lighting Designer: Cheng Keng.
Composer & Sound Designer: Hugh Sheehan.