Doris and Doreen are the sole members of a department at a large company who spend most of their day gossiping, backbiting, complaining and, occasionally, working. Doris (played by Prunella Scales) is a blunt-natured, single woman with a dependent mother who is intelligent but a bit lazy. She obviously could be doing more than she is but chooses not to, wielding her nearly encyclopedic knowledge of rules and procedures as both shield and sword. Doreen (played by Patricia Routledge) is a slightly spacy married woman who lords her married status frequently over Doris. She comes across as the kind of woman who seems nice but really isn't. The women don't particularly like each other but years of working together have created a tacit agreement to do as little work as they can possibly get away with. Unfortunately, the winds of change blow and the elements of their insulated world are scattered.
The play is well structured and the random topics of conversation (forms with numbers, requisitions, interdepartmental feuds) that make-up the first act come back to haunt the two women in the second act as it becomes clearer and clearer that something is afoot in their department that will alter their lives and not for the better. Scales and Routledge are both brilliant in their roles creating very real characters who are obsessed with the trivial and mundane and ill-prepared for a new office environment.
My only criticism is that the context they work in is so vaguely defined. It's never clear precisely what their department is or what the company they work for is about. It's probably purposeful to give the presentation a more universal feel but while the characters feel very real, the world they live in lacks that grounding. But overall, a very entertaining play.
P. S. My favorite quote towards the end: "Doris, I'm frightened! Look at the point on those pencils!"
