Starring the magnificent Imelda Staunton it tells the story of Margie, a working-class single mum and South Bostonian, who has fallen on hard times. Egged on by her friends Margie approaches recently rediscovered schoolgirl heart-throb Mike for a job. And maybe more.
What makes the play so clever is how our sympathies rarely rest with just one character. We feel sorry for Margie with her tough life and her disabled daughter but as she needles and teases doctor Mike it comes across as plain bullying.
Mike initially resents, then tolerates but soon bitterly regrets Margie's intrusion into his middle-class "curtain-lace" family home. He has done well for himself and but what starts off as defensiveness of his own success soon turns to aggression.
There is true viciousness behind Margie complaints, "You made your choices. I didn't have choices."
And it's a very funny play too with some great one-liners.
"How's the wine?" Mike asks Margie as they sit in his posh front room.
"How the fuck am I supposed to know?"
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