In Henry James’ 19th century novel Daisy Miller, rich Americans fascinated by Europe’s history and architecture spend several months a year exploring its antiquities. The two young leads, one British one Australian, have totally convincing American accents, and carry the play.

Scarlett Johnson captures the essence of the flirtatious Daisy to perfection and Richard Grieve holds the stage with considerable presence as Frederick Winterbourne, who fills in the missing parts of the story, addressing the audience directly.

Sandra Dickinson is a delight as Daisy’s mother, her accent excellent. The same cannot be said of Jean Boht as the snobbish aunt of Daisy’s would-be suitor who struggled for the first couple of scenes to introduce some semblance of American into upper class English but then gave up.

Shirley Anne Field has little to do as the imperious society hostess so horrified by Daisy’s behaviour, she excludes her from her soirees. An interesting insight into two different cultures that, to a certain extent, remains to this day.