Summary

The play takes place in London in the 1940s in the flat of actor Garry Essendine. Act One begins with Daphne Stillington, a woman in her early twenties, arriving on stage having come out of the spare bedroom. She is wearing a man’s pyjamas and dressing gown. She makes a phone call and explains to her friend Cynthia that she stayed the night at Garry’s house and asks her to tell anyone who is looking for her that she spent the night at Cynthia’s. Daphne hangs up.

The housekeeper, Miss Erikson, enters. Daphne is nervous to speak to her but Miss Erikson is clearly unsurprised to find a stranger in the flat. Daphne enquires what time Mr. Essendine usually gets up in the morning and Miss Erikson replies that it depends what time he went to bed and that...