THE PLAY IS EXTREMELY WELL WRITTEN.

• “Wonderful language.”
• “May I say how much I enjoyed such a beautifully crafted play. The incredibly witty dialogue and the pretty crafty way you artfully had us laughing and (almost) crying at the same time.”
• “Love the language.”
• “Wonderful, crisp dialogue (without going for cheap laughs).”
• “Good writing. Nice dialogue (especially the differences between the decades).”
• “The dialogue was wonderful, funny and poignant.”
• “Linguistically well-crafted and amusingly written.”
• “The play itself was funny, moving and believable.”
• “Lots of wonderful humour.”
• “Funnier than ever!”
• “I have no criticisms about your witticisms (sorry about my excuse for rhyme!). I just enjoyed every minute.”
• “Very good — as enthralling as the best who-done-it? and as well thought out and constructed as the best of drama written in the English language.”
• “I like an author who knows his subject — Venice, Torcello, Burano. I enjoyed your choice and knowledge of music.”
• “Enjoyed the reading. Never guessed the secret. Was it that bad in the 1960s to be pregnant and unmarried?”
• “Wonderful ideas, wonderful language, especially the rhyming patterns.”
• “I didn’t realise it was in verse until someone told me.”
• “The verse was delightful, subtle and beautiful.”
• “The rhythms and rhymes play an important part in bringing the audience into the drama by making them anticipate what is coming next.”
• “The lovely rhythms of the writing began to emerge much more strongly in the second half (I’m sure that is a function of a reading). Should we be aware of them? I like to think we should — just.”
• “All in all it was a pleasurable juxtaposition of the commonplace and erudition.”
• “You’re a genius, and I mean it.”

”THE CHRONOLOGY IS INITIALLY CONFUSING, BUT THE FITTING TOGETHER OF THE “JIGSAW” IS ULTIMATELY SATISFYING.

• “A play with tremendous potential yet just a little too confusing in places.”
• “Reminded me slightly of the pulp fiction style of narrative. Very confusing to start with but, like a jigsaw, pieces fit together and progressively the bigger picture focuses.”
• “Intriguing and captured our attention to the last.”
• “Could use something to establish the time-cultural context, as it were — at the beginning to establish the decade. More names might be useful too.”
• “I found the episodic nature of the piece confusing initially but got into it more as the drama unfolded.”
• “The plot was a delightful jigsaw puzzle that came together before us. Random scenes that were difficult to thread together coalesced to a wonderfully complete vision.”
• “The plot kept me guessing right to the end.”
• “The non-chronological story-line is a real challenge, even after having seen the play once already [in Hammersmith last year]. That challenge is good in that it makes us think, but not so good if it leaves us that little bit too confused. Some extra clarity would help. I think we should be left in little doubt that we are in a different age (and which) at the first couple of changes, so that we are acclimatised to the later changes. Or would that remove some of the mystery of the challenge?”
• “It may work better as a film project.”