Elisabeth has just moved into a flat in a converted Victorian mansion, complete with a creaky floorboard. Around her are well-meaning family and friends, though most of them quickly become rather irritating. Men drift in and out of her life, as does her mother, whose comments are always slightly out of place. Meanwhile, the history of the old house slowly resurfaces, weaving the past into the present. This play explores love and identity, both now and before. It is funny, slightly ghostly, and filled with lively characters—very much in the spirit of Kate Atkinson’s novels. I would love to see this in a theatre.
“AGNES. Do you not sometimes feel that your heart will burst from all the thoughts and emotions it is freighted with?
GERTIE. No.
AGNES. No, Gertie? Do you not sense the vibrations on the very air, like invisible messages from somewhere else, telling us how grand the world is, how fantastic our souls?
GERTIE. Only after a drop of gin.”