OFFICE politics are not confined to the office. Witness the two women in Patrick Stettner's debut drama, a taut study of corporate ambition, anger and female revenge.

Sleek Julie (Stockard Channing) is at the top of the executive tree, expecting the chop but newly promoted to the highest branch, in that dangerously exposed time of her stretch-marked forties. Slacker, tattooed Paula (Julia Stiles) is the surly underling she fired earlier that day.

Their plane grounded, they are stuck in an airport hotel for the night. Poles apart, rather than two peas in a pod, they are nevertheless drawn together by drink, boredom, and an innate need to scrap, and maybe a sexual frisson.

First they test out each other, their hostilities slowly thawing under the influence, until they collide once more on a new battleground: an unctuous, self-satisfied head hunter (Frederick Weller) who has misled Julie over her prospects and, according to Paula, raped a friend in her college days. Frustrations spill over, in the manner of a Greek drama, yet they remain competitive as they exact revenge.

Stettner's twisting and turning cautionary tale is a seriously sharp satire, taking a dig at male arrogance and countering misogyny, while also wondering how far women will go to succeed, what damage it does to their health, physical and mental, and what barriers still stand in their way.

The ever reliable Channing - remember Mrs Bartlet in The West Wing? - excels as the businesswoman who is as cutting as broken glass, tough on the outside but vulnerable, recognising her strengths and her weaknesses and challenging them both. Stiles, meanwhile, confirms an unconventional Hollywood talent, the best since Jennifer Jason Leigh at playing a troubled young woman with attitude and a poisonous line in put-downs. Angelina Jolie could pick up a tip or two.

Updated: 08:55 Friday, May 24, 2002