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One works. One looks around. One meets people. But very little communication takes place . . . That is the nature of this little island.As five apparently unrelated characters meet in a seemingly insignificant garden, the autumnal sun shines overhead and everybody waits for rain. What they discuss is superficially anything that can pass the time. What is portrayed is the very essence of England, Englishness, class, unfulfilled ambition, loves lost and homes that no longer exist. Storey's timeless play is a beautiful, compassionate, tragic and darkly funny study of the human mind and a once-great nation coming to terms with its new place in the world.

A most rich and compassionate play. It is funny, sprightly and uplifting . . . the writing is extraordinarily pungent, its skill is in capturing spontaneity and freezing it into art. A lovely play, a sad play., A sad Wordsworthian elegy about the solitude and dislocation of madness and possibly about the decline of Britain itself . . . part of the play’s appeal is that Storey leaves us to draw our own conclusions . . . a play that contains within itself the still, sad music of humanity, An affectionate, intelligently acted revival

David Storey was born in Wakefield and is a Fellow of University College, London. His plays include The Restoration of Arnold Middleton (1967), which won the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright; The Contractor (1969), Home (1970) and The Changing Room (1972), all of which won the New York Critics Best Play of the Year Award; In Celebration (1975), which was adapted as a film in 1974 starring Alan Bates; Life Class (1975); and The Farm (1973). All of these plays were first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, while Early Days (1980), The March on Russia (1989) and Stages (1992) all premiered at the National Theatre.