Review: What Every Woman Knows, Finborough Theatre

Written for Time Out

Written at the height of the suffragette movement, What Every Woman Knows is not, as its male protagonist believes, 'the tragedy of a man who has found himself out.' Rather, it is his wife's story. JM Barrie - creator of the eminently sensible Wendy Darling - suggests not only that behind ever great man is a great woman, but that he is incapable of turning around to see her.

That man is John Shand, a promising, humourless politician bound into marriage as part of a pact of patronage. His wife, Maggie, endures that lopsided union with quiet dignity, deflecting all her acheivements on to him. Though she types - and tweaks - his speeches, Shand believes a guardian angel to be watching over him and, eventually, elopes with a young girl fit for the cover of Horse & Hound.

Barrie's absolute opposition of gender - whereby masculine over-confidence is set against silent self-effacement - might seem naive today, but it builds to devastating effect. Once the plot pares down after a protracted set-up, here over-directed to compensate - it reaches terminal velocity thanks to the performances of Gareth Glen and Madeleine Worrall as husband and wife.

Worrall, in particular, is perfectly restrained. As Maggie manoeuvres her own cuckolding, she seems held together only by her skin, eventually allowing herself a single, private sob. This is her tragedy and, finally, her vindication for all her sex.