CONFUSIONS To 29 August.

London.

CONFUSIONS
by Alan Ayckbourn.

Union Theatre 204 Union Street SE1 0LX To 29 August 2009.
Tue-Sat 7.30pm.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.

TICKETS: 020 7261 9876.
www.uniontheatre.biz
Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 August.

A play of five scenes in a production of two halves.
It’s come to something when the plays of Alan Ayckbourn, long-term mainstay of West End and middle-brow repertories, turn up in the Fringe hinterland of new work and neglected classics. Yet here’s the Union bringing freshness to his five short plays, several linked by a character apparently from the preceding section.

And each conversation-filled scene leads logically towards the final downbeat isolation of the monologues in ‘A Talk in the Park’, which reflects the preceding structure as each character ignores another’s tale of woe to inflict their own on an equally unwilling hearer.

Confusions shows Ayckbourn’s target middle-class England in 1974 as a place of human fission rather than fusion. Lucy, in ‘Mother Figure’ talks to adults as if they’re children – and there’s a sinister hint apparent by the end that Rosemary’s inconsiderate husband is not only put in his place, but that Rosemary might start along a similar path if desperation takes her there.

It’s neatly, if not quite sharply enough handled in Ben de Wynter’s production, which also has good fun with the central restaurant scene, though he’s not quite scrupulous in deploying Ayckbourn’s device that we only hear what the Waiter would as he stands by each of two tables.

Between these scenes, ‘Drinking Companion’ is the highlight here, with two of this company’s strongest performers, Claire Marlowe who captures the off-duty salesgirl’s smiling and embarrassed awkwardness as Howard Teale’s semi-drunk sales rep tries to persuade her to his room. With Charlotte Milchard plotting the way from polite to impatient as her colleague, Marlowe captures precisely the last days of one kind of English woman.

After the interval, ‘Gosforth’s Fete’, the farcical highpoint, is beyond the production’s resources and the energy-level’s low for this style. It means the final park scene forms less of a contrast, while it could benefit from characters being more intense in their annoyance at others and concern for their own situations.

Still, with the three opening scenes, and good work within a larger-than-usual cast for this play (including Andrew Piper’s businessman Donald Pearce), it makes for a worthwhile trip to the Union.

Lucy/Mrs Pearce: Gillian McCafferty.
Rosemary/Polly/Doreen: Aimi Percival.
Terry/Stewart/Charles: Ben Neale.
Harry/Vicar: Howard Teale.
Paula/Milly: Claire Marlowe.
Bernice/Beryl: Charlotte Milchard.
Waiter/Ernest: Michael Mills.
Martin/Arthur: Nicolas Stratton.
Mr Pearce/Gosforth: Andrew Piper.

Director: Ben De Wynter.
Designer: Robyn Wilson-Owen.
Lighting: Steve Miller.

2009-08-18 23:16:04