Daughters and Sons

Sabine Ponsonby presides over her large household with despotic force, rivalled only by her imperious daughter, Hetta. While her needling cruelties cause one governess after another to flee, the family's younger generation begins to stir in revolt. Written in Ivy Compton-Burnett's iconic style, with dialogue seething with veiled insults and manipulations, this is an acidic comedy of manners about the self-consuming power struggles of the Victorian family.