ONE would have to be a blend of Scrooge, Rumpelstiltskin and Cruella de Vil not to wish this piece well. It’s that extreme rarity, a first play by a new dramatist in the commercial West End. And that’s because its author, Kate Betts, won a competition — set up by the producer Sonia Friedman and painstakingly chronicled on Channel Four — that brought 2,000-odd scripts by unknowns pouring into the Friedman letterbox, all with the prospect of a showing at the New Ambassadors.
Again, who wouldn’t be disarmed by a piece that begins like On the Third Day? A troubled 29-year-old called Claire picks up a beardie in a bar, brings him home and, saying she’s bored with her virginity, politely asks him to