The world of these characters is within living memory and yet no longer exists – for one thing, they all meet in person, if they meet at all. Sharing an open-plan office meant just that: no Zoom calls, no hybrid working. All calls were on landlines, and even these were occasional. To misquote football, it’s a play of two halves. In this case, the first is all about what happens prior to Letty (Kate Duchêne) and Marcia (Pooky Quesnel) retiring and therefore ends with a happy ending of sorts in the form of a retirement party at work. The second, perhaps unsurprisingly, is about what happens after the working ladies have become ladies of leisure. Hurrah for a play that unwraps its story in forward chronological order – I was rather expecting something along the lines of an opening scene of Letty and Marcia’s last day at work followed by bouncing backwards and forwards, until at some point later it would be determined quite why all their colleagues present at the party were so happy neither of them were ever going to do a nine-to-five ever again.
This is, essentially, a story about the routine and the mundane, and on that basis alone, it was quite remarkable that it maintained interest from start to finish. Someone takes a bus to go somewhere. Someone else is heading out to somewhere other than work – an outpatient appointment counts as a non-work outing, thank you very much. It was easy to appreciate how different and distinct each of the four work colleagues was, even if it made the storyline somewhat contrived. Why on earth would the four of them choose each other’s company even after two of them had retired? Then again, their contrasting natures made for some dramatic tension, even if their individual and collective geniality muted it. (So what? This is not the stuff of soap operas.)
The iciest of them, Marcia, preferred to keep herself to herself – Quesnel is a tour de force in portraying a woman who would rather be left alone to get on with things. Again, times were different in the 1970s: a social worker assigned to Marcia, without Marcia asking for one, won’t stop pestering her, pestering being very much the operative word. These days, to even get a social worker, there’s all sorts of proverbial hoops, jumps and skips to be negotiated. Perhaps Marcia would have preferred to live in the mid-2020s. Want something? There’s an app for it. Don’t want something? Well, just don’t have it.
Perhaps they would all prefer to live now rather than back then. An employer cannot force anyone to retire anymore, so if they wanted to carry on, they could. Edwin (Anthony Calf) would still find plenty of functioning churches in London to practise his religion. Letty would still be in what is probably a timeless question as to whether to stay in the capital or retire to the countryside. Norman (Paul Rider) would wax lyrical about the sorts of things people complain about now: the cost of living, cold callers, parcel deliveries that fail to arrive, fly tipping…
The first half was more briskly paced than the second, with the interval marking a dividing line of the rat race on one side and supposedly blissful retirement on the other. It’s a well-drilled production, though not altogether perfect: I still don’t understand what dramatic purpose was meant to be achieved, for instance, by a scene in which they all talk at once and all that can be heard is noise. In the end, though, the observational humour in this sharp and engaging production makes it worth seeing.
Review by Chris Omaweng
In 1970s London, four co-workers approach retirement, each quietly marking time. As the seasons turn, they go about their daily rituals and routines. Marcia hoards tinned food and drifts into solitude. Letty dreams of something more. Edwin, a widower, finds refuge in the church. Norman rails against modern life. Together, they form a quartet – a fragile compact to get through the days.
A sharp, witty and keenly observed portrait of loneliness in a changing world, of the courage it takes to keep going, and the grace that can be found in the ordinary.
Anthony Calf – Edwin
Kate Duchêne – Letty
Pooky Quesnel – Marcia
Paul Rider – Norman
Based on the novel by Barbara Pym
Adapted by Samantha Harvey, directed by Dominic Dromgoole
Ellie Wintour – Set and Costume Designer
Skylar Turnbull Hurd – Lighting Designer
Ella Wahlström – Sound Designer
Fay Powell-Thomas – Production Manager
Bea Viña – Costume Supervisor
Cara Dromgoole – Assistant Director
QUARTET IN AUTUMN
Arcola Theatre
7 May to 20 June 2026
