PADDINGTON GREEN

Resuming the lives of Gower Street (although not dependent on it for its interest), this also combines author Rayner's modern medical and period concerns and takes place at the time of the young Victoria's coronation. The stage is shared equally by Abel Lackland, a dedicated surgeon if a tyrant to his sons (one of whom attempts to appropriate his hospital) and his daughter Abby, widowed young, whose love for a Sephardic Jew is overruled by tradition and his faith. At the close she is still alone although Abel, whose wife has hardly stirred in her bed where she's lain lifelessly for years, is finally flee to marry a devoted servitor. Handicrafted with some care and more sense than most to go with the sentiment.