Peter Shaffer's latest play is a jeu
d’esprit in which the esprit struggles against
the philistines and against all the odds gloriously
wins. As the embodiment of that esprit Maggie Smith,
playing the adorable Lettice Douffet, of French extraction,
and with a rather lethal dose of the theatrical in the
blood, battles with daring and invention, pitting her
generous wits against the embittered domineering Lotte
Schoen (Margaret Tyzack). It is a play about
imagination as the life force, struggling endlessly with the
powers of darkness, and the casting of these two actresses
in the main parts is a stroke of genius in itself. As
for Schaffer, he has produced a comedy to rank with the
smartest and in creating Lettice, who revels in the language
of romance as in that of the theatre, we can only stand by
and watch with envy at such sheerly enjoyable indulgence.
At curtain-up we discover Lettice conducting a tour of
the Grand Hall of Fustian House, not once but three times,
and rising to such a pitch of invention and embroidery in
her account of Queen Elizabeth the First falling headlong
down the stairs that she is accused by Lotte Schoen of
cooking history—if it's a dull, Lettice feels she should
“have had a hand in it”. Lettice gets the sack
and the rest of the play is devoted to the strange
relationship that develops between ‘artiste’ and bureaucrat,
culminating in an apparent assault and battery to be sorted
out by an extremely bewildered solicitor, Richard
Pearson. Impeccably directed by Michael Blakemore, and
with designs by Alan Tagg, Shaffer's play puts the West End
back on the map.
