Wits

Do you write a letter to tell the recipient how you feel? Or how you wish them to believe you feel? If you are bold enough to read the following collection of letters between Mariana Quinn and Thomasin Rivers, rival playwrights with a romantic past, you must be adept at recognising the line beneath the line. Their correspondence begins with the proposal for a game that promises to protect both their careers. But be warned, while our Wits may flirt and jest, their letters contain all manner of vice: seduction, revenge and blackmail. Their times demand that they become mistresses of manipulation. London's theatre managers are sceptical of the public's appetite for women's writing, though one unscrupulous impresario is not above passing off Thomasin's work as his own. Though the King has been restored to the throne, there is a Puritan preacher whose determination to remind a pleasure-seeking audience about the perils of damnation is threatening the box office takings for Mariana's latest offering. Can they be blamed for using their wit to secure their futures? And can their wit protect them from love? These women know that the pen is mightier than the sword. But, who will have the last word?