Remember the days when most personal communications were sent by mail? Birthday and Christmas cards, official and unofficial letters, invitations, promotions, notifications of a death in the family and hundreds, nay thousands, of daily letters of public outrage encouraged by a certain Mrs. Mary Whitehouse. At the height of her infamy she had sackfuls of complaint letters arrive daily for a good old juicy sift through. Mrs Whitehouse had a religious fervour to tell the world what was right and wrong in Britain’s social and sexual behaviour.

Who needed Facebook and similar social media platforms to put an outraged ignorant penny’s worth in for whatever the old-fashioned version of click bait was. Not ordinary busy- body -about -town, Mrs. Mary Whitehouse.

This self styled Evangelical social reformer, may be thought of today as a mockable bastion of prudery from the decades of the sixties, seventies and eighties – a kind of alternative Dame Edna Everage lookalike with Jesus firmly on her side. Yet things in the provincial garden of Mrs. Whitehouse are much more complex when, in her blinkered world of homely sanctity and nice cakes, she opens the locked up door on the garden shed of horrors, to find a profusion of *pansies bursting out. Whatever they may have claimed on 1970s Gardeners World, things were forbidden to be gay in the flower strewn garden sanctuary of Mrs. W, or in fact, the closeted times she lived in.

A woman of righteous contradictions and strong opinions, in one breath she would be okay with surface homosexuality in others, and in another less accepting gasp of indignation, her actions brought about the closure of the publication of Gay News – the only Gay newspaper based communication during a time of the virulent rise of HIV and AIDS worldwide. Her actions encouraged a highly restricted spread of vital health news and catastrophic wave of deaths from the virus.

On a more positive note she also warned about the dangers present and future of the creating and sharing of child pornography and ‘video nasties’. Complex and controversial, Mrs Whitehouse was a character aching to have her life exposed, warts and all, on a major stage and Nottingham Playhouse is just the venue.

‘The Last Stand of Mrs Mary Whitehouse’ is a brilliant gripping two hander; a top class meta theatrical affair providing thought-provoking moments of revelation and reflection amongst the many laughs.

Playwright Caroline Bird has done a remarkably in-depth dig around in terms of very impressive research to create this quite extraordinary and revealing and, necessarily gay biased, play.

Maxine Peake as Mary Whitehouse, holds the audience in the cheesy grin and stubborn nature of her highly credible performance. Her acting is perfection, even when (and here is the matter of the meta) her costumes and wigs are changed in full view of the audience by stage hands. She is both funny, surprisingly vulnerable and downright scary. Someone should draft a letter…

There must have been thousands of people of all influences; ordinary, political and famous who crossed paths and words with Mrs. Mary Whitehouse in her life. Many of the key ones, of all persuasions both male and female, are brought to life by the remarkable interpretive talent of Samuel Barnett. The casting of Barnett and Peake in this play is peak perfection. One of his characters is vehemently booed on arrival and for one moment I thought Donald Trump had found his way to Nottingham. Thankfully not. It would be a proper spoiler to reveal who that equally despised personality from history is. Barnett has an impressive pedigree of acting work and it is no wonder his talents are so sought after. He is seldom off the stage in one quick change guise after another.

Director Sarah Frankcom has taken Caroline Birds’ theatre text and creative ways of expressing a real-life fractured personality, equally vilified and admired, and created a brilliantly compelling stage experience. Even if you don’t know who Mary Whitehouse was go to Nottingham Playhouse and this top class play will ease back the twitching curtains of curiosity for you.

*The once derogatory term Pansy for a homosexual person has now been reclaimed by the gay community as a positive.

The Last Stand of Mrs. Mary Whitehouse runs at Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 27th September.