WHEN the curtain goes up on the Attic Players’ spring production it will mark a bit of a change for the Newcastle Emlyn theatre group

London Wall, written by John van Druten, is the first period drama produced for some years and promises to be a great play.

The action is set at a firm of solicitors in 1931, a time when there were 2.7 million people unemployed in the UK. This dramatic comedy shows the situation many women faced: a life of low-wage drudgery in offices, from which matrimony offered the only escape.

The play is full of strong characters. In particular, it focuses on the dilemma faced by 19-year-old newcomer Pat, who is pursued avidly by the office Casanova and rather less diligently by a downstairs shipping clerk.

As a warning of the awful fate that may await her, we see Miss Janus, still slaving away for three quid a week and with a very uncertain future in the marriage stakes.

There is plenty of humour and the play’s writer, John van Druten, has some shrewd things to say about sexual double standards and the desire of the boss that every worker becomes "as nearly as possible an automaton or a machine".

London Wall will be seen at the Attic Theatre, Cawdor Hall, Newcastle Emlyn on May 4 (curtain at 8pm) and May 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13 (curtain at 7:30pm).

Tickets are available from the Attic Players website (www.atticplayers.org.uk) or in person at ‘Fair and Fabulous’ in Newcastle Emlyn.