What's OnTeeth 'N' Smiles

Teeth ‘n’ Smiles follows Maggie Frisby, who was once a trailblazer and the brightest star of the Swinging Sixties’ musical counterculture. By 1969, however, Maggie and her band are performing to an indifferent audience at a ball at Cambridge University and are broke, burned out, and fuelled by alcohol and resentment. Nevertheless, Maggie’s extraordinary voice will not be silenced. David Hare’s play is filled with rebellious energy and gritty resilience that remains as powerful as ever, especially regarding women in the music industry.

In his memoir About Hare, the playwright remarked: “I would say that Teeth ‘n’ Smiles is about the fag-end of idealism. It’s about utopianism when it turned sour. It’s about that stage people reach when they will do anything for an experience, and having originally enjoyed the vitality of the experience, they then become addicted to the experience.”