The most immediate feeling when coming out of Chichester’s latest offering is relief - not that the evening is over, but that, as a woman, I don’t live in 1921. Orphan Lois Relph, bereft after her benefactor Fanny has died, finds herself in the house of opportunistic widower (and brother to Fanny) Eustace Gaydon.

A gauche and grieving young woman, it is no surprise to find that when the curtain comes up on the next scene 10 years later, Lois is married to Eustace, and the huge inheritance she received from Fanny has now become the property of her feckless husband. We find a woman kept in the dark about her finances and, when it comes to pulling the family out of debt, she is powerless to do anything about it.

Will Keen is fabulously repellent as Eustace - the narcissistic, patronising and duplicitous husband and father (it seems no coincidence that Eustace sounds very much like useless), and there is strong support from Eve Ponsonby and David Bark-Jones as step-daughter Monica and lover Peter. However, the evening belongs to Ophelia Lovibond, who makes the impressive transformation from quivering and dowdy girl-child to glamorous and effective business woman Lois.

What is most fascinating about this play, however, is its provenance. Before 2008, it had only been performed once, in 1924 - being bafflingly neglected despite Githa Sowerby’s early work being compared to Ibsen and Shaw. Written nearly a century ago, it is remarkably modern in its non-judgemental attitude to adultery and the strong message about the way in which women suffer when men make all the decisions. Sowerby was a remarkable playwright, a Suffragette, Fabian and proto-feminist, she lived until the 1970s but never received the recognition gained by her male peers.

The success of this revival will no doubt contribute to a renewed appreciation of this insightful, political and witty playwright and will hopefully lead to Sowerby’s work reaching the wider audience that she deserves.

Emily Angus