Daphne Laureola
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Winner "Best Play of the Year" in 1949, "Daphne Laureola" was a great hit in post-War London when first staged there by Sir Laurence Olivier, in a production which starred Dame Edith Evans. Re-visited here in a production from 1977, starring Sir Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright, "Daphne Laureola" is a witty and surprising tale of romantic idealism and faltering desire. In a Soho restaurant, a diverse group of people gather for dinner. Four partygoers celebrating a birthday, a bitter couple snapping over supper, an elderly working class businessman, and Ernest, a young Polish emigre. Dining separately, they find their evening disturbed by an extraordinary woman, Lady Pitts, who talks aloud and sings even louder while knocking back double brandies and handing out invitations to tea at the home of her husband Sir Joseph. The impact of her appearance on their evening and in particular on the impressionable Ernest, becomes the subject of this extraordinary production. For the young man, she is Beatrice to his Dante; Daphne, to his Apollo. But for Lady Pitts, the situation may be something entirely different, as will be revealed in "Daphne Laureola.".