John Sparrow

D.H.Lawrence's Tickets Please! adapted for the stage by John Sparrow

"Tickets Please" is a short story written by D. H. Lawrence. It is set during the First World War, when men in Britain were deployed in large numbers as soldiers, and women were engaged in employment roles that they had not previously undertaken. The main characters in the story are Cissy Meakin, Annie Stone, Nora Purdey and Laura Sharp employed as conductresses, and John Thomas Raynor employed as an inspector, for the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Tramways Company. This adaptation of the story for the stage, highlights the models of working practice adopted by the women, alongside the conflicted nature of gender in that socio-cultural context. The play reveals the consequences for Cissy and Annie of their respective romantic relationships with John Thomas, together with the range of reactions of all of the women in the story, as they seek to address his behaviour.