It centres on Daryll Fairley and her shifts from rebellious daughter to independent businesswoman to housewife between 1913 and 1930, described by Michael Billington in The Guardian in 2013 as "one of the best roles written for a woman between the wars".
The arguments have sprung to renewed life with the publication of Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg’s book on the subject [Lean In].
"[2] The plot spans 17 years, following the character of Daryll Fairley, and focusing especially on the relationships between gender, money, and power within a family.
[3]: 80 Paul Taylor sums up the theme, writing, "The play asks whether, regardless of gender, the controller of the family purse is bound to become an autocrat.
Writing about the original production, New York Times reviewer Charles Morgan said that the play "rests upon an extremely interesting idea, but the treatment of it has been falsified by theatricalism...The portrait of Daryll Fairley, though sometimes distorted by circumstance, is evidence enough of what Miss Stern can do when she yields to her own interest in her own subject and is not overmuch troubled for theatrical effect".
"[4] Laura Thompson, reviewing for The Telegraph wrote, "Stern is no Ibsen, and she rarely says something once when she can say it three times, but although her dialogue lacks wit, her thinking does not.
"[1] Thompson writes that the play "plunges into the question of whether a woman can have love, and independence, and fulfillment, and concludes that there is no honest answer.
[3][8] The play was revived by the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London from 13 March to 13 April 2013 in a production directed by Helen Leblique, and starring Deirdre Mullins as Daryll.