Review: The remarkable story revealed at Chichester Festival of one mom's meeting with The Beatles at the height of their fame

There are some people who pop round, or stop you in the street, or call out across the garden fence and regale you with the latest gossip and events in their lives.

Such encounters can be diverting, amusing, or incredibly tedious – as you struggle to bring the ceaseless flow of chatter to a polite conclusion.

Rakie Ayola’s 75 minutes’ of anecdote of that fleeting period in the 1960s when Adrienne Kennedy met The Beatles was as engaging as it was captivating from the very moment she first started speaking.

So personal was the interaction with her audience that at one point she even joins them in an empty seat, effortlessly blurring the line between actress and lifelong friend.

There are the briefest of questions from son Adam (Jack Benjamin) who with precise timing neatly tidies up a point or two that has been opaque.

He strums some music too – although some haunting Beatles’ tunes might have added more atmosphere.

This is a true story of Adrienne’s attempt to adapt John Lennon’s book for the National Theatre in the 1960s.

Like many reminiscences of friends and neighbours, the tale itself does not give any overwhelming insights into the lives of John Lennon or even Laurence Olivier – just glimpses.

More monologue than play the Minerva rarely gets more cosy or familiar than this.