The Information On: `Peggy for You'

What Is It?

Alan Plater's witty play, directed by Robin Lefevre, about the legendary real-life agent Margaret (Peggy) Ramsay, whose client list (which included Joe Orton and Alan Acykbourn), reads like a roll-call of the greats of post-war British drama.

Who's In It?

For all the undoubted skill of her comic timing and mannerisms, Maureen Lipman never quite manages Ramsay's effortless superiority, despite Plater's excellent script.

What They Say About It

"Lipman is fundamentally miscast. It's like watching Dame Edith Evans struggling to do an impression of Maureen Lipman... Properly critical of some aspects of her methods, the play also richly shows that being represented by Peggy Ramsay must have been as enthralling, inspiring and fraught with risk as being taught by Miss Jean Brodie," Paul Taylor, The Independent.

"What might have been an in-joke becomes an eloquent testimony to a woman who believed infinitely more in art that she did in money," Michael Billington, The Guardian.

"Lipman may look nothing like Ramsay but she gloriously captures the agent's vitality and eccentricity... At first I wondered whether the play would appeal to anyone apart from sad theatrical trainspotters like myself. What you realise after the interval, though, is that Plater's script is cunningly structured and not nearly such a cosy celebration of eccentricity as it first appears," Charles Spencer, The Daily Telegraph.

Where You Can See It

Peggy for You is at the Hampstead Theatre, London NW3 (0171-722 9301) to 15 Jan