The curtains open on a beautiful 1950’s housewife, Judy, a slight woman with immaculately curled hair and starched pink floral pinafore, a coordinated outfit that is almost perfectly reflected in the creamy buttercup yellows of the kitchen behind her. She is placed in a wider set displaying the interior of a home that could have come straight out of a ‘50s homemaking magazine, with corresponding matching curtains and enamel fridges. Having made her husband, Jonny, a breakfast cooked to perfection and waved him out of the door, Judy contentedly removes her apron, folds the newspaper, and whips out a laptop from underneath the kitchen table. Home, I’m Darling is a precise exploration of gender politics, nostalgia and escapism, presenting the unsolvable questions of the gender power balance and the underlying psychological effects of fantasy in a visceral, absorbing play. Set in the 21 st century, it details the life of Judy, played by Katherine Parkinson, a woman who to...