– Drama by James Prideaux
Foundering a bit after the death of his aged (and domineering) mother, Manley Carstairs, a self-styled literary artist, engages a house-keeper, Annie Dankworth, to look after his large Victorian house (and himself). When Annie first arrives, wearing sneakers and carry-ing her belongings in a grocery cart, Manley is taken aback. She seems so eager to please that he relents—after which their relation-ship progresses rapidly from initial reserve to active hatred. Annie is one of the world’s great oddballs. She insults her employer, deni-grates his writing, admits she forged her references, accuses Manley of lusting after her and, in general, makes his life a living hell. Eventually, Manley can take no more. When he advances on Annie with strangulation in mind, he trips, falls into her arms, they em-brace, and the rest is history. Conveyed in a series of fast-paced, juxtaposed scenes—some in the present, some in the past—the play covers all these unlikely events with lively wit and biting humor, becoming funnier and funnier as it builds toward its unexpected and thoroughly delightful conclusion.