However, the highlight of the afternoon was Charlotte's wonderful chocolate cake. By popular demand here is the recipe:
Charlotte's Chocolate & Marron Cake
150g Dark Chocolate
130g Butter
500g Creme de Marron not puree (available from Match)
4 Eggs
- Melt the chocolate & butter
- Beat the eggs into the creme de marron one at a time
- Add chocolate & butter slowly into the creme de marron
- Cook at 150 degrees for 50 minutes
The Women by Clare Boothe Luce
The Women is a 1936 play about a group of Manhattan socialites, their pampered lives, power struggles and gossip. It was made revived in 1973 and 2001, and turned into a film three times: in 1939 and then in 1956 (as The Opposite Sex) and 2008. It strikes me as a Sex in the City for the 1930s!
Clare Booth Luce
Although best known for her play, The Women, Clare Boothe Luce (March 10, 1903 – October 9, 1987) was the first American woman appointed to a major ambassadorial post abroad.
Characters
Mary (Mrs. Haines): middle 30s, upper middle-class housewife, married to Stephen Haines with two children (little Mary and little Stephen), demure, faithful, innocent/positive outlook towards marriage
Crystal: middle 20s, single (until marriage to Stephen): no children, lower-class, fragrance salesperson, flirtatious, deceitful, ambitious, manipulative, unfaithful, disrespectful
Sylvia (Mrs. Fowler): 34, upper middle-class housewife, married to Howard Fowler with two children (male born with forceps, female born by Caesarean section), gossiper, assertive, disloyal, dishonest, blunt, inconsiderate, selfish
Peggy (Mrs. Day): 25, middle-class housewife (she has money but not her husband), married to John Day with no children (but longs for a child), innocent, compliant, awkward, sympathetic
Nancy Blake: 35, upper middle-class writer, single, possibly bi-sexual (virgin), traveler, blunt, direct, feminist, unemotional
Edith (Mrs. Potter): 33/34, upper middle-class housewife, married to Phelps Potter with 4 children, one-dimensional, dull, non-confrontational, does not like children, sexual tendencies, static
Mrs. Morehead: 55, upper middle-class, Mary's mother, presumably a widow, old fashioned/traditional, strict, wise
Countess De Lage: middle-aged, upper middle-class, divorced four times, outgoing, hopeless romantic
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| The 1936 original cast |
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| 1939 |
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| 2008 |
