Next week the Union Theatre plays virtual host for the most fantastical what-if dinner party imaginable and everyone's invited. Steven Carl McCasland’s female-fuelled drama Little Wars, streamed online, unites iconic witty literary figureheads Gertrude Stein, Alice Toklas, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman and Agatha Christie, plus anti-fascist freedom fighter Muriel Gardiner. In a comedy that truly resonates today, these women of all creeds (Jewish, gay, straight…) find themselves round a boozy dinner table in wartime France as the Nazis invade. Ahead of the release, JR's Arts Editor Judi Herman spoke to playwright McCasland, plus cast members Linda Bassett (Stein) and Debbie Chazen (Parker) about the fascination of these women – for the audience as much as the playwright and cast – as wits, their loves and rivalries, and their feistiness and sheer bravery in very different times to ours.

Other members of Little Wars' star-studded cast include Juliet Stevenson (Hellman), Catherine Russell (Toklas), Sophie Thompson (Christie) and Sarah Solemani (Gardiner). Funds raised will be donated to the charity Women for Refugee Women.

Little Wars streams Tuesday 3 – Sunday 8 November. £12. ONLINE. www.littlewars.co.uk