A proud past, a shabby present, an uncertain future: the state of the nation in 1956 perhaps, but also the state of the Rice family in a run-down seaside resort, where Archie is fronting a strip-show in a seedy theatre. Ever the entertainer, he carries on joking, dancing, singing – increasingly dead behind the eyes. This is a modern classic: it is a play about the state of the nation, but it is also a play which is vaudeville: funny, sleazy, sentimental in turn, after turn, after turn.