It's a great truism of the acting world that there are no good parts for women over 40. Actually, strike that. It’s a great truism among actresses approaching 40 that there are no good parts for women over 40.

Right now, you don’t hear young actresses like Sienna Miller or Andrea Riseborough complaining, even though they were probably aware on entering the acting profession of its reputation for awarding women a short shelf-life. But when these ladies approach their supposed use-by dates, I bet you they suddenly start bemoaning the fact that there are no good parts for women over 40.

It’s rubbish, of course, as Michael Grandage’s wonderful revival of Enid Bagnold’s The Chalk Garden proves. Here are superb roles — witty, dramatic, touched with pathos and glamour and grandeur — for Margaret Tyzack (76) and Penelope Wilton (62), plus a couple of nice comic cameos for women of a similarly uncertain age.

All right, you can argue that Bagnold’s play is rarely revived, and to an extent it’s true that there remains a yawning gap between 40 and 60 if your name isn’t Redgrave or Richardson. But the truth is, female actresses come into their own in their sixties.

Neither Wilton nor Tyzack seems to have been doing badly recently. Or Sheila Hancock (75). Or Liz Smith (86). Or Helen Mirren (62). Or Eileen Atkins (73). Indeed, I treasure the memory of Wilton in The House of Bernarda Alba and in Dr Who, of Smith in Endgame as well as Lark Rise to Candleford, of Atkins in everything I’ve seen her in. And Mirren, indeed, is the only thing I care to remember about National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets.

Of course, whether I’ll be doing the same for the sexuagenarian exploits of Sienna or Andrea remains to be seen.

Until 2 August (0870 060 6624).