by Caryl Churchill.
One of the most successful
British plays of the last ten years begins at a dinner party with a difference. Marlene, a modern, successful woman of the 1980s is entertaining five guests from the past:
Victorian traveller Isabella
Bird, 13th-century Japanese courtesan Lady Nijo, Dull Gret, a character from a Breughel painting, Pope Joan , and, arriving late,
Patient Griselda, Chaucer's obedient wife. All are remarkable women. All are long dead.
A World Service production