A full-cast adaptation of a dark comedy by one of English literature's most original and idiosyncratic authors

Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett (1884-1969) was an English novelist who was a bestseller in the mid-20th century. She published eighteen highly acclaimed works of fiction in her lifetime, inspired by her own tragic experiences of family life. Her works consist mainly of dialogue and focus on family life among the late Victorian or Edwardian upper middle class. They deal with money, power, status, incest, adultery, murder, homosexuality – about which she was years ahead of her time – and all the passions and stresses of family life, described with brilliant wit and perception.


Daughters and Sons, an acidic comedy of cold deceptions, mistaken identities and family struggles for dominance.


Sabine Ponsonby presides over her large household with despotic force, rivalled only by her imperious daughter, Hetta. As her needling cruelties cause one governess after another to flee, the family’s younger generation begins to stir in revolt, and the seeds for a reckoning are sown. How will the two women survive the ensuing battle, which is conducted over the dining-room table in a series of hair-raising and hilarious meals?

Adapted by John Spurling.

Starring Patricia Lawrence, Ann Mitchell and John Rowe.