Winnie's age changed from 11 to 9, her mother was renamed from Glynis to Laverne, but the French tuition formed an important plot element of this play.
(The final version of Life of Riley was only written and performed in the year after My Wonderful Day, with Winnie dropped from the story.)
[3] This play was heavily based on the perspective of a child, described by Ayckbourn as a "small recording machine" – in this case, made more interesting by the fact that the adults ignore her and give away far too much information.
It mostly takes place in the house of Kevin, in the living room, office and kitchen (with a final scene by a hospital bed).
Winnie shortly hears Kevin on the phone discussing last night's party with his friend, Josh, using most unsuitable language, and this she diligently adds.
Kevin gets drawn into another phone call, this time an argument with Paula, so Tiffany ushers Winnie into the office.
Tiffany gazes adoringly, mouthing his words, whilst Winnie gets bored and balances a pencil of her head.
Both, mistakenly believing Winnie only speaks French (even with an English-speaking mother), discuss the messy details in front of her.
Tiffany goes for sandwiches whilst a famished Josh tries to persuade Winnie to give him one of her biscuits, and when that fails, tries to pinch one only to be caught red-handed.
Driven from the kitchen by Josh's snoring, Winnie returns to the living room, sitting on the one part of the sofa not soaked when her mother's waters broke.
Before her eyes, Kevin comforts Tiffany from the earlier insults, then they move on to pet names of "Big Bear" and "Ickle Tiffy" before heading for the bedroom.
It goes into minute detail (including the state of Kevin's toenails, and her belief that her mother only says she wants to go to Martinique because she is unhappy about the separation).
that "Ayckbourn can bring the house down with a single word", and also suggested "Winnie may grow up to write 73 perceptive comedies herself.
Kevin Berry for The Stage particularly singled out her body language, from facial expressions to hunching over the table to swinging her legs.
[10] There was also praise for the effectiveness of the five-minute sequence where Winnie simply reads out The Secret Garden, with Claire Brennan for The Observer writing "In that moment, a transformation happens as magical as the most magnificent pantomime transformation anyone could ever imagine, even though, on the stage, nothing changes;"[13] and Charles Hutchinson from The Press considered this another example of Ayckbourn's long history of risk-taking.
[14] A minority of reviews were lukewarm, with Dominic Cavendish for The Daily Telegraph describing the play as "a perfectly decent but pretty forgettable comedy",[15] and Ian Shuttleworth for the Financial Times commenting "It's not classic Ayckbourn, but there's certainly life in the old dog yet".
[18] However, Elisabeth Vincentelli for The New York Post considered the play "uneventful", only picking up at the end with Paula's entrance.