If So, Then Yes

I shall shortly be eighty-eight. High time to be giving serious thought to the direction my life should be taking. In an upper-crust retirement home, Geoffrey Wythenshaw sits down to write his memoir. But he faces constant interruption from his fellow residents, their visiting relatives and the attending staff. Some of them seek his wisdom, others only distraction.

Born in 1919, N. F. Simpson's works include A Resounding Tinkle (1957), The Hole (1957) and One Way Pendulum (1959), all of which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, under the direction of William Gaskill. In 1964, a film of One Way Pendulum was released featuring Jonathan Miller, who in 1988 staged the play at the Old Vic Theatre. The Cresta Run (1965) and Was He Anyone? (1972) followed. A Resounding Tinkle, along with Simpson's work Gladly Otherwise, was revived in a sell-out production at the Donmar Warehouse in 2007. His last play If So, Then Yes premiered in a production by Presence Theatre at the Jermyn Street Theatre, London, in 2010. Simpson wrote extensively for the BBC and ITV, including the hit Elementary, My Dear Watson, featuring John Cleese. In 2008, the BFI screened a season devoted to his work for film and television. He is the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary, Reality is an Illusion Caused by Lack of N.F. Simpson. N. F. Simpson died in 2011.