The play, Brenton's first for Portable Theatre, was directed by David Hare, designed by Tony Bicat and the stage management was by Snoo Wilson. Hare continued on as director when the play was presented at the Royal Court on 12 March 1970. John Russell Taylor reviewed the play favourably in The Second Wave, while Ronald Bryden in The Observer noted that “Brenton catches the peculiar cosy horror which surrounded our most sensational murder trial of the fifties”.[2] The play won Brenton the John Whiting Award for 1970.[3]