OLD MONEY Hampstead Theatre

Sarah Wooley’s modern fable, which owes quite a lot to a short story by Bertolt Brecht, is billed as a tender comedy. There is nothing tender about it. A 70-year-old widow (Maureen Lipman, underplaying) who has led a very respectable and very dull suburban life, determines things will be very different from now on. She is no longer willing to sacrifice her life, her money and her home for her selfish mother, daughter and grandchildren. She abandons them all and thinks only of herself. The theatre was packed with people who were in the widow’s age-bracket and it was clear from their applause that they wholeheartedly approved of her behaviour.