YOU know what they say – if you remember the 60s, you weren’t really there. It is probably also true that if you remember the 50s, you wouldn’t want to go back there. But romantic Judy and her husband Johnny love the 50s. They love the music, the clothes, the home decor … Johnny obviously loves a devoted wife who brings him tea in bed, serves him breakfast with a ready-topped boiled egg, keeps their home spotless, always looks beautiful with a cocktail in hand when he gets home and saves the best bits for him as she serves his supper.

Judy and Johnny are blissfully happy … or are they? Judy is secretly worrying how she can continue to pay the mortgage, now they no longer have her (bigger) salary, and Johnny is beginning to feel that his 1950s suit and hat and his unreliable 1950s car may not be the best look for his work as a valuer with an estate agency.

Judy’s mother, Sylvie – who remembers the 1950s, vividly and without a grain of affection – wants her daughter to start living her own life again. Their close friends Fran and Marcus love the 50s for the rock’n’roll and the dancing … and Alex rather fancies having a stay-at-home wife, cooking, cleaning and welcoming him home from the coal-face (office).

This is the brilliant and provocative premise of Laura Wade’s 2018 play Home I’m Darling, the summer production for Yeovil’s reliably excellent Swan Theatre company, on until 25th July.

The curtain rises on a picture-perfect 1950s home, with geometric and colourful wallpapers, G-plan style furniture and a classic 1950s fridge. Judy, charming and beautiful in her 1950s capri pants and pretty blouse and pinny, is serving Johnny breakfast before sending him off with a kiss and a packed lunch.

But this is the day when the certainties of Judy’s life will begin to show cracks. Amy McIntosh – who so impressed last year in A Hundred Words for Snow as well as major roles with YAOS – digs deep to convey the vulnerability of her character, beneath the perfect exterior. Ryan Anslow, who made his Swan debut in Pressure, takes on a leading role as Johnny, with a roller-coaster of work and relationships unravelling around him.

Melanie Gillespie-Day makes her Swan debut as Fran, Judy’s sympathetic friend, whose own independence is being challenged by her husband, Marcus. Adam Lanfranchi reveals the Jack-the-lad beneath the charm, cleverly and ultimately chillingly.

You might wonder which of this quartet is actually most rooted in the 1950s?

The other characters are feisty and efficient estate agency manager Alex (Carys Clayton), mobile phone always in hand but emotionally intelligent beneath the business-speak, and Judy’s mother, Sylvie, a life-long rebel against the male-dominated establishment, played with gusto and conviction by current Swan chairwoman Sarah Ambrose.

There are some very telling lines – particularly when Johnny shouts at Judy that she has nothing to do all day. There were a lot of very feeling gasps around the theatre from women who these days almost certainly work full time and still do ALL the housework, shopping, cleaning and cooking.

Funny as it is, Home I’m Darling also asks a lot of searching questions about gender roles, living out our fantasies and control – still a vital burning issue in the lives of so many women. This production, directed by Judith Payne, with a very sure hand and great attention to detail, really brings these questions to the fore and provides some satisfying answers for at least some of the characters.

FC