House and Garden: Ayckbourn: Salisbury Playhouse and Studio to 20th March 2004

Salisbury

HOUSE AND GARDEN
by Alan Ayckbourn

Salisbury Playhouse, 12th February 2004 to 20th March 2004
Mons-Weds; 7.30 pm; Thur Sat; 8.00 p.m.
Runs 2 hours 18 minutes: One Interval

Tickets 01722 320333: http://www.salisburyplayhouse.com
Review Mark Courtice: 6th March 2004

Two plays at the same time, but more is not necessarily better. In Salisbury's tiny studio the Garden half of Ayckbourn's split screen story is told while actors disappear off to the main stage where House, the partner piece, tells the rest of the story.

House is the big brother of the pair, but even this feels as if there is not enough to fill the time. Thin story lines are held up in response to the need to match the timing of the other play.

This problem is worse in Garden.

In the huge Salisbury Playhouse main auditorium yet another posh living room set fills the stage. Elegant antiques and pilasters indicate this is old money, while the French windows lead into the garden....

....where on Michael Holt's bosky garden set Teddy's household are setting up a fete (much worse than death) helped by the local doctor and his wife and the Loves, who run the local store. Visitors include a shadowy political fixer (come to vet Teddy as potential MP) and a minor French star invited to open the fete.

In both plays the women are badly let down by lovers and husbands. Ayckbourn does unhappy women well, but here they seem so unpleasant that it is hard to summon up much sympathy - and without out that, why bother?

This is not helped by the acting which is generally tepid and unconvincing, played as if with an eye on the clock, as if something far more interesting is happening next door. The only advantage to this is that the need to get off stage (and then on to the other stage next door) imparts energy, especially in Garden. People really do look as if they have somewhere else to go.

Strangely, in House things are much more static, lots of people seeming to end up jammed together up-stage centre, not going anywhere.

Only one scene shows what might have been. It's a long and beautifully timed (by both writer and cast) sequence when Teddy is ignored by a whole stage full of people who then turn out to speak French, isolating him more completely than before.

Teddy Platt: John Branwell
Trish Platt: Joanna van Gyseghem
Sally Platt: Jenni Maitland
Giles Mace: Bill Champion
Joanna Mace: Pippa Haywood
Jake Mace: Tom Lawrence
Gavin Ryng-Mayne: John Warnaby
Barry Love: Morgan George
Lindy Love: Lexi Strauss
Lucille Cadeau: Félicité du Jeu
Fran Briggs: Joanna Bacon
Warn Croucher: Richard Cane
Izzie Truce: Lavina Bertram
Pearl Truce: Sophie Duval

Maypole dancers:
Lawrence Hannaford, Sarah Hannaford, Iona Johnson, Joe Rose, Laura Smith, Catrin Southgate, Bliss Winder, Bryonie Winder, Jade Andrews-Morelli, Emily Bearne, Louise Edwards, Freya Evans, Ellie Hamilton, David Hoare, Asher Randall, Freya Rock

Director: Tim Luscombe
Designer: Michael Holt
Lighting: Peter Hunter

2004-03-25 11:33:58