The play was first produced on a small scale in August 1998 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the New York Fringe Festival. Great reviews have followed this train wherever it has stopped. But don't bet against this foursome. Let your guard down for even a few seconds, and they've got you. There is total silence in that minute, and then the lights go down and the illusion is still there, a rustle and then a storm of applause.
Every line is a heart beat.
But though the play deals with a more innocent period, it is not dated. Charting the rocky course of true love can never be old hat. The dialogue is by turns glibly posturing, fumblingly poetic, cuttingly punchy, often covering up aches and voids beneath, and always right. In 1853, art critic John Ruskin, his wife, Effie, and his friend and protege, painter John Everett Millais, depart in high spirits for the Scottish highlands. When they return to London four months later, Millais' hatred for Ruskin is exceeded only by his passion for the beautiful young Effie.