"She" seems hellbent on giving feminism a bad name. Morgan has based her plays on tapes the couple made of their conversations in restaurants, in bed, over breakfast. This is a real-life story, perhaps even a true one. Neatly concealed till the end of Abi Morgan's play is the fact of their spectacular ages. He, an affluent businessman, accepts eagerly – once he's run the paperwork past his lawyer. In return for "mistress services" (which boils down to sex whenever and however her lover wants it), he will supply "tasteful accommodations" and "expenses". She, a teacher who seems to spend more time in women's groups than with her students, finds herself becoming angry with their arrangements and proposes a deal, a written contract. Twenty years and several marriages later they meet again and start an affair. They knew each other at college but then lost touch. Thank goodness this pair got together and prevented another couple being driven mad with boredom. I felt much the same about the She and He in Abi Morgan's new play The Mistress Contract. S amuel Butler said it was very good of God to let Thomas and Jane Carlyle marry each other: it meant that only two people rather than four were made miserable.
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