THE ROUND-HEELED WOMAN Aldwych Theatre

Jane Juska, a lonely retired high school English teacher in America, separated from her husband and grown-up son, and celibate for 30 years, felt her life lacked drama. She placed an advertisement in The New York Review of Books in 1999 which said: “Before I turn 67 – next March – I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me.” She received 63 replies from men aged 32 to 84 and published her experiences in a best-selling novel which has now been poorly adapted for the stage. The ex-teacher is well played by Sharon Gless (of Cagney & Lacey fame) who, though absolutely the right age, is such a handsome and sophisticated woman, and in such excellent shape, too, that she doesn’t for one moment look as if she would ever need to do something quite so desperate, quite so embarrassing and quite so humiliating.