FOUR STARS ****

“This gently gratifying play, written by JB Priestley for Ralph Richardson, hasn’t been given a London airing in more than 70 years. It’s the story of a small aluminium import business facing bankruptcy in the bleak early 1930s. Cornelius, played with curt charm by Alan Cox, is a partner trying to keep the firm afloat as it is beset by “sharks with beards and attaché cases”. Yet this is as much a piece about workplace dynamics and stuffy office life as it is about trickle-down economic desperation. A pretty typist (Emily Barber, wonderfully breezy) threatens to shake Cornelius out of his rut. Everyone in this play has their own modest yearnings, and the director, Sam Yates, takes them seriously.”

Maxie Szalwinska, 2/9/12