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Charlotte and Enid, a widowed mother and spinster daughter from the North of England, have travelled to Salonika to visit the war grave of long dead husband and father, Ben, who died in the ill-fated Allied expedition to Greece in the Great War. There they befriend a young man they encounter sunbathing naked on the beach, and are joined by Charlotte's elderly but ardent admirer who has followed them there. Charlotte is there to say goodbye before finally casting off her widow's weeds and beginning a new life with her new lover. Enid, meanwhile, is deperate for insights into the father she never knew, prevent her mother from remarrying and leaving her alone in the world.
The play centers around the two women and their contrasting attitudes to life. In a kind of role reversal, Enid (Lynn Farleigh) is the mother figure, a sad, bitter and sexually repressed who has spent a lifetime martyring herself to her mother's needs and whims. Charlotte (Josephine Tewson - Elizabeth in TV's "Keeping up Appearances") is more vital and carefree, despite her age she has an enthusiasm for life and a winning, almost mischeivous, sense of humor. The play examines the relationship between these two women, their different dreams and aspirations, with the emphasis being on the needy Enid.
The role of Charlotte is a demanding one, requiring Miss Tewson to transition seamlessy from present to past in her interactions with her daughter and long-dead husband, Ben, and to shift very quickly from humor to pathos and back again. Ben (Paul Fox), appears to her and the other characters not so much as a ghost but as an essence, an extension of themselves wherein he still lives as a part of their own psyche.
Charlotte's relationship with her lover Leonard (Fred Pearson) is the catalyst which sparks off the emotional upheaval that lies at the centre of the drama. Mother and daughter, although they frequently irritate each other, have become tremendously dependent on each other. The appearance of Leonard threatens that relationship, as well as stirring jealousy in Enid over all the things missing from her life, and drawing her toward Peter (Daniel Bayle), the young man they meet on the beach, who seems to show an interest in her.
It is a very English play, with earthy characters with a tough sense of humour, and is at times original, imaginative, funny and touching. But it is overly long for it's content and subject matter, which is not helped by the uneveness in duration of the two halves. At eighty minutes, the first act was becoming tedious and the arrival of the interval was a distinct relief - as was the assurance that the second act was less than half it's length.
An interesting, emotional play but one which is too drawn out and ultimately unsatisfying.