As Frances becomes more involved with Polly, her boss at the `Questioner', impressed by Frances's friendship with the Kytes, puts some of the more prestigious assignments her way. Instead, the chief pleasure of this evening lies in the continuous satirical jibes at journalism and at family life (pictured below). But the trope of the plucky female upstart who rises to become the power behind the throne is no less cliché. Remarkables REMARKABLES Intriguing, stunning, or otherwise remarkable books These include fine editions, foreign publications that are exceptional for their interest or production, special editions and some first-rate books from very small publishers.

Harriet Lane's exceptional first novel matches the twisted motivations of Sophie Hannah to the social satire of Amanda Craig's A Vicious Circle. Though there's a little technological wizardry in the video projections by Luke Halls, it's not as interactive as van Hove's (created with his long-term professional partner Jan Versweyveld). With the Bridge in its thrust configuration Bob Crowley’s sleek set inventively slides locations across the stage and up through the lifts, with Luke Halls’ projections helping to set the scene and Christina Cunningham’s costume designs charting Frances’ course from invisible to power player. So much of the fun of the piece, which reminds me strongly of those vapid West End comedies of the 1950s, lies with incidentals: a cooking metaphor that sums up Frances's manipulative sense of timing; the idea that Frances is always acting, always on show, which is what gives Froggatt's performance a certain frisson.Nicholas Hytner’s Bridge Theatre sometimes feels overwhelmed by a sense of unrealised potential: it can command the best playwrights, actors and directors in the world, but has yet to really knock it out of the park with a piece of new writing. She then stays with the woman, Alice Kite, giving her words of comfort and encouragement while awaiting arrival of the ambulance. At the same time, there is something bizarre happening: Frances feels more herself when she pretends to be Alys than when she is simply Frances. And her patience pays off one night when an accident gives her the opportunity to change her life and become one of life's elite.

A gripping psychological thriller that excavates the fault line that separates the entitled from the unentitled.With shades of Hitchcock, The Talented Mr Ripley and Dear Evan Hansen, it was first staged at the Bridge Theatre in London in 2019 starring Joanne Froggatt and Robert Glenister.

And would a literary lion like Lawrence really have found her interesting enough to start an affair with? Great things were expected for this theatre, founded by Nick Hytner and Nick Starr after they departed from the National Theatre, which they had turned into the single most exciting theatrical address in London. I soon realized that Frances saw her opportunity and wanted to use it, exploit it--to move ahead into another social and professional stratum. The fact that Frances fabricates Alys’s last words when relaying the death to the Kyte family – a fact unearthed by Teddy – raises interesting questions about truth as a categorical imperative and the usefulness of fictions, but it goes nowhere.When Alys's family makes contact in an attempt to find closure, Frances is given a tantalising glimpse of a very different world: one of privilege and possibility. Simply knowing the famous Kytes gives her kudos: at one point she kisses Laurence on the cheek in public — then checks that her boss has seen her.