PERFECT Days, which begins a three-week run at Basingstoke's Haymarket Theatre next week is a romantic comedy about a just-divorced 40-year-old woman desperate for a baby, but not for the accompanying father.
Ah, yes, the familiar theme of the undertow-strong pull of a woman's biological clock. Bookshops are full of brightly covered novels dealing with Bridget Jones themes of turning thirty and craving a partner and/or baby. And it's a theme that's hit upon a universal truth according to Susannah Elliott-Knight, who plays the lead role of celebrity hairdresser Barbs.
"I think quite a lot of women are caught between 60s feminism and their biological clocks," she told The Herald mid-rehearsal.
"The New Labour movement falls between two stools in encouraging women to work but also to have a family and that puts women in their late 30s in an difficult position. Barbs is trying to be independent and run her business but at the same time she's desperate to become a mother so she's in quite a vulnerable position. She's trying to have a baby without being in a relationship and choosing to be a single parent is still quite frowned upon."
Susannah, at 37 and a single working woman says she can relate to her character, but that identification would probably stop at some of the technicalities Barbs employs in her desperate fertilisation attempts - the use of a turkey baster for one. The mind boggles.
And as if Barb's search for a father, or more strictly speaking donor, wasn't complicated enough, her three choices boil down to a male stripper, her best friend's son, or her hairdressing colleague or his boyfriend. Hardly ideal. So if Susannah had to choose the perfect attributes for the role what would they be?
"She is looking for intelligence and good looks. I would look for health and intelligence."
Barbs is not just hairdresser to the stars but a semi-celeb in her own right, giving people makeovers on morning TV. A female version of This Morning's Nicky Clarke then? "No comment."
The London-based actor comes from a theatrical background. Her father set up the Royal Exchange in Manchester and her mother Rosalind can be seen as the past-it prostitute in the BBC 2 sitcom Gimme, Gimme, Gimme. Before that, her grandparents also trod the boards. But for a time it looked as though Susannah might break the chain.
"I came into it late. I worked mainly in social services with kids and in administration finding housing for homeless people. I thought 'You see, you don't have to follow the family trend'. But then I did some acting evening classes, mainly as a hobby and someone said I should audition for a part."
She did the audition, got the part and went on to train at Rada, notching up numerous parts in RSC and other quality productions. And so far Susannah hasn't looked back, although she can see herself returning to the DSS within a few years.
"Acting is a very selfish profession. You're constantly thinking about how you look, how you're performing. It makes you very self-centred and I'm more into being behind the scenes."
For the moment though, she's happy on the stage, touring the country and trying to get pregnant using a turkey baster.