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Origin of the Species at Arcola, E8

Two women born 4m years apart meet in Bryony Lavery's sprightly comedy of ideas. Molly, a cantankerous archeologist, uncovers a prehistoric woman in Tanganyika and smuggles her back to northern England. She names her Victoria and instructs her in essentials: language, manners and singing On Ilkley Moor Baht 'at, to harmonium accompaniment. Knowledge travels both ways, and Victoria's increasingly fluent stories confirm Molly's conviction that evolutionary history has too often written women out. Lavery has since written far more searching plays, but this is an entertaining slice of feminist revisionism. It can feel patronising, more lecture than argument. Still, Tom Littler's production bubbles along - Molly's home, all skulls and layer cake, is the epitome of doughty English eccentricity, and Marjorie Yates plays her extra-dry, particularly when bundling her ancestor (Clare-Hope Ashitey) into sensible woollens: "You're in Yorkshire, miss, and we wear cardigans."