On stage

Some 20 years ago the reviewer become a business acquaintance of Derek du Pré, then Secretary of the Institute of Cost & Management Accountants and subsequently of the London Chartered Accountants Students Society. It was impossible therefore not to link the subject matter of Duet for One with the tragic disability suffered by his daughter Jacqueline, the celebrated young cellist, save that one could not possibly equate the rantings of the self‐obsessed Stephanie Abrahams with the gentle Jacqueline's touching tutorial performances in television's Master Class a few months ago. That being said, however, Stephanie's role must still be fairly described as a Frances de la Tour de force, rather tending to obscure the equally important part played by David de Keyser as psychiatrist Dr Alfred Feldman, the other participant in the Duet, at whose consulting pad the action takes place. He no doubt derived some comfort from the fact that, if the worst happened, it would be less damaging to be hit over the head by a violin than a cello, but the reviewer will always be left wondering whether such an obvious — and therefore surely intended — parallel was an insensitive intrusion on somebody else's private grief.