or The English Traveller in Rome circa 1820 by Joanna Richardson
Produced by Douglas Cleverdon with Maxine Audley , Robert Beaumont
Denise Bryer , Frank Duncan
Felix Felton , Hester Paton Brown
Eric Phillips , Leonard Sachs Ian Sadler , Eileen Thorndike and Molly Lawson
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Piazza di Spagna was virtually an English colony. The huge travelling coaches of English milords, witih their retinues of servants and postillions and couriers, jolted past Bernini's boat-shaped fountain; artists' models in their carefully picturesque costumes hung around the foot of the Spanish Steps waiting for custom; a few yards away was the English Coffee House, with its walls decorated in the Egyptian style by Piranesi. 'As for the English ladies,' wrote Henry Matthews , ' they have metamorphosed Rome into a watering-place. One or other of them is " at home " every evening, and there are balls every week.' 'Maxine Audley is appearing in ' Penelope' at the Arts Theatre, London)