I had expected a drawing room romp of a play, but what I got was an intellectual and religious debate on the nature of God and the warmth of friendship.

Patricia Routledge is Dame Laurentia McLachlan, a nun and abbess of Stanbrook. Roy Dotrice is playwright and socialist George Bernard Shaw and Michael Pennington is Sir Sydney Cockerell, a Cambridge museum director.

All three are close friends who corresponded regularly and met occasionally during the first half of the 20th Century.

So, can playwright Hugh Whitemore, author of Pack Of Lies and The Gathering Storm, turn the letters and diary fragments of this trio of unlikely friends into an entertaining evening at the theatre?

The answer is a resounding yes, thanks to a sharply written script and excellent performances from this three-hander cast, with Dotrice standing out as the irascible and waspish Shaw.

The set is a splendidly decorated room where the museum director and Shaw can work and where the Abbess makes visits.

Pennington's character, an atheist, acts as interlocutor for the other two. Sparks fly as friendship and religion are closely examined.

But it is in this debate that the play shows its flaw. There is little action and the play deserves to be read several times to understand the best of what is being said. Arguments fly back and forth and you have to be quickwitted to pick it all up.

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