A compelling nightmare of a woman
Just back from Peggy for You at the Hampstead, a revival of the 1999 play by Alan Plater, staring Tamsin Greig as the legendary theatrical author’s agent Peggy Ramsay.
This is a well made play – the first half introducing you to all that was funny and sort-of endearing about Ramsay – the second showing just why she could be hated and feared.
A play about playwrights and play writing, by a very accomplished playwright, could be incestuous, of course, but is in fact compelling, and interestingly focuses around, in part, the question ‘what is a play’ posed first by a young beginner when told by Ramsay that what he has written has two good scenes, but ‘isn’t a play’.
The set is complex and real and the action (set over Ramsay’s inner and outer office) is the best portrayal of a real office day, with real office work, that I have seen in some time, without making a thing of it. Some very strong acting from Tamsin Greig and Trevor Fox (as one of her long standing clients) and Danusia Samal as Ramsay’s long-suffering secretary/ PA.
Goodness knows how long anything will stay open (a reference to Covid) – but if you can, it’s definitely worth going.