Lettice and Lovage: A Comedy

Love the concept of the play, a bored tour guide and can see why this would have run on Broadway for so long.

Ran across this little jewel while looking for a female duet acting scene. Great characters, lively lines.

Lettice and Lovage is a very pleasant and mildly subversive comedy, very literate and easy to read-Shaffer is a great writer-and proves intelligent and enjoyable. Mostly a two-hander, Lettice is a somewhat eccentric lady who guides Preservation Trust homes and sites, ever enjoyable with a sense of the grandiose, embellishing to the point of distraction. Lotte is her boss and agitated at her flippant use of the tour guide soapbox, a woman trapped in a staid job. They prove to be fast friends, and ultimately come together only to be driven apart for reasons I won't mention here. The point is, Lettice and Lovage is a smart, enjoyable read. It's subversive nature speaks to the death of culture, the end of English greatness and beauty for the sake of beauty, not to mention the power of the theatre and arts to be advantageous and educational in otherwise un-artistic places.

Peter Shaffer hit a home run with this marvelously witty play. I saw it on Broadway before reading it and thought it was truly worthy of Maggie Smith's talent. In reading the play I have found a greater apprecition for the piece. I great tribute to comedic leading ladies!