From left: Anthony Calf, Pooky Quesnel and Kate Duchêne in Quartet in Autumn [Manuel Harlan]

SET in 1970s London, Barbara Pym’s Quartet in Autumn, adapted for the stage by Samantha Harvey, is a poignant depiction of four co-workers approaching retirement.

The play follows their daily ritual, routines and revealing interactions.

Their chatter is banal, and little happens in the office beyond the sharing of a cup of coffee or a biscuit. One senses that each of them yearns for something more.

They all live alone. Letty (Kate Duchêne) fears ending up in an old people’s home and losing the little companionship she has, now that her friend has embarked on a late-life romance. Edwin (Anthony Calf), a widower, finds refuge in the church.

Tetchy Norman (Paul Rider) fills the vacuum with noise, shouting at cars and railing against everything wrong with the world.

The most aloof of the four, waspish Marcia (Pooky Quesnel), hoards tinned food, keeps empty milk bottles in her shed, and eats like a bird. Recovering from a mastectomy, she fantasises about her surgeon, Mr Strong. On retirement, she becomes increasingly distant and self-neglectful.

Pym’s characters’ fears feel just as relevant today – their loneliness is palpable – and it’s easy to sympathise with the dread of having nothing to fill their days after retirement.

Often silence speaks louder than words; what the characters say may not be what they mean, and small acts, such as the passing on of a funeral wreath, convey volumes about their inner states.

Pym offers a master class in observing ordinary lives, and Harvey adopts  a light touch in her condensed version.

Beautifully nuanced performances illuminate the subtle layers in Pym’s work, drawn out by Harvey’s adaptation and Dominic Dromgoole’s assured, deliberately understated production.

There’s humour in the period detail and Ellie Wintour has fun with the 1970s costumes.

Warmly recommended.

Until June 13
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