The Work-room of a Savile Row Tailors, 1953

Two master craftsmen at daggers drawn: Polish-born Spijak insists that nothing can beat the excellence of a hand-sewn suit, while Eric uses his machine to work at twice the speed and earn twice the money. Sparks fly as each fights his own corner with biting wit and vicious humour. Into this battleground steps Maurice, a teenager at the very start of his apprenticeship. Will he survive the gruelling training to become a master tailor? Or will he, as Spijak’s daughter urges him to, escape?

The Cutting of the Cloth, drawn so much from Hastings’s youthful experience as an apprentice tailor, has lain in a drawer. Now Two’s Company brings it rampaging on to the stage.