As of opening night, Trevor Nunn’s production had been trimmed to a little under the running time of the classic movie version of Margaret Mitchell’s novel: only three and a half hours. So, does the tale of Scarlett O’Hara’s roller-coaster love affair with Rhett Butler in the old South hold a theatre audience’s attention over such a span?

No. More precisely, that isn’t really the tale we get. Adapter Margaret Martin has given Mitchell’s novel plenty of affirmative spin, so that Scarlett’s troubles lead to her Finding Herself at last, while the slaves and ex-slaves are happy because they know that “All God’s children were born to be free”. And Rhett discreetly disapproves of the Ku Klux Klan.