Makeshifts and RealitiesA triple bill of Makeshifts and Realities by Gertrude Robins, and Honour Thy Father by H. M. Harwood.

Makeshifts by Gertrude Robins – A London suburb, 1908. Two unmarried sisters, Caroline and Dorothy, face uncertain futures unless they can find husbands. They have suitors, but are these vulgar, manipulative, dull men really what they want? How far must they compromise in order to survive? Or are they better off throwing aside convention and striving for independent lives? Realities by Gertrude Robins – It’s two years later in the same setting. We catch up with Caroline as she reviews the choices she has made. But, when a figure from the past reappears, she starts to doubt the decision she made… Makeshifts and Realities are a moving and unexpectedly humorous look at the sexual double-standards and the pressures imposed on women in the early twentieth century. Honour Thy Father – by H M Harwood – 1912. An upper-class English family, ruined by the father’s gambling habit, have fled to Bruges where they live in exile in straitened circumstances. They anxiously await a visit from their eldest daughter, Claire, an independent woman whose career provides them with their only income. Family relations are already strained and resentful, but a chance meeting with a visitor with an inclination for blackmail plunges them into chaos and recrimination – with devastating results…