REVIEW: E.M. Delafield’s DIARY OF A PROVINCIAL LADY By Ellie Ward at Bridge House Theatre, Penge 4 to 15 November 2025

‘What the 1930s might have called an absolute corker’ ★★★★

There’s a reason why the classics are the classics and that reason is that they’re good. Oh, of course, they’re of their time and might not always meet modern ideas of what’s too long or insufficiently seemly. But they put us into a particular time and place and tell us what it was like, both in what their authors consciously tell us and in what they unconsciously reveal about the way things were. EM Delafield’s Diary of a Provincial Lady, approaching its centenary, survives above all for simply being funny, sitting somewhere on the literary journey between the self-regarding, self-deprecating, self-deluding diaries of Mr Pooter and Miss Bridget Jones.

Devon. The 1930s. The difficulties of maintaining a genteel lifestyle on what might be delicately termed a stretched budget, with an oblivious husband, two children of whom one might be variably proud and a set of neighbours and acquaintances whose expectations and whims must be met if appearances are to be kept up.



Ellie Ward’s and Becky Lumb’s production of this lastingly successful little gem also survives on a stretched budget – three actors to play the cavalcade of titled ladies, vicars and their wives, cooks, servants and casual acquaintances. And it’s what the 1930s might have called an absolute corker, too. Rapidly paced and quick-fire from the off with the front row of the audience co-opted as hat-stands for the primary props the actors require as their headwear changes to mark their many character shifts.

All three of the cast are superb – writer/director and co-producer Ward herself (going the full Orson Welles as she stand in for a sadly indisposed Lumb) plays the provincial lady herself, coping insouciantly (or very much failing to) with the vicissitudes of life from the moment Lady Box (an imperious Rebecca Pickering) patronises her fancy dress ‘angel’ costume and the vicar’s wife needs a chat. Pickering’s array of ladies high and low (the cook ever on the verge of givin’ notice one of the several highlights) demonstrate her range; no less does Michael Ansley’s actor Jaaasper (a deity of the London stage) or monosyllabic husband or increasingly frustrated bank manager fail to demonstrate his comic timing and versatility.

Nicely chosen tunes of the 1930s quietly play in the background (at least until a post-curtain vaguely ‘30s instrumental version of “All By Myself” slyly, comically and neatly brings Bridget Jones to mind once more). On the other hand, the choice to have the two children appear only as recorded voices from time to time does slow the pace a little (even if it gives the three principals a necessary breather given the sheer amount of rapid-fire dialogue perfectly delivered).

It helps any production if the source material’s good, but what makes a show special is the mixture of respect for source and innovative approach. This one does that by finding the funny and not neglecting the underlying idea that most of us at some point are like ducks, seeking surface serenity while our feet are paddling furiously beneath the surface. 

Been a big year for Delafield revivals. A show that shows she’s worth it, and, like her more modern literary relative, that we love her, just as she is.

DIARY OF A PROVINCIAL LADY By Ellie Ward, after E.M. Delafield, Directed by Ellie Ward at Bridge House Theatre, Penge – 4 to 15 November 2025

Box Office: https://thebridgehousetheatre.co.uk/shows/the-diary-of-a-provincial-lady/

Reviewer David Weir’s plays include Confessional (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Better Together (Jack Studio, Brockley, London) and Murdering the Truth (Greenwich Theatre). Awards include Write Now!, Scottish Community Drama Association and Constance Cox, and he’s been twice long-listed for the Bruntwood Prize.