THEATRE

Theatre
This witty, sharply observed novel centres on Julia Lambert, a brilliant and beautiful actress at the height of her fame in London’s West End. Married to Michael Gosselyn, a solid but unimaginative theatre manager, Julia begins to feel restless in her middle years. Her life is upended when she falls into a passionate affair with a much younger man, Tom Fennell, who seems dazzled by her glamour but is also calculating in his ambitions. As Julia realises Tom has been using her to advance his social standing and pursue a younger actress, she stages an emotional and professional comeback. In a triumphant scene, she reasserts her power both onstage and off, exposing the illusions around her with ironic grace. Theatre explores vanity, aging, and the blurry line between performance and reality, offering a character study of a woman who turns every setback into a performance and triumph of will.