HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES.
Tour
HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES
by Alan Ayckbourn
Bill Kenwright production on tour
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat at 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 25min One interval
TICKETS: 01604 624811
www.northamptontheatres.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 July at Derngate Theatre Northampton
Early Ayckbourn still funny and reflects its period.Is the large-scale Derngate too big for this six-handed comedy? Commercially, no with almost every seat sold. Artistically, the company manage capably, though Julie Godfrey's serviceable set is dwarfed on a stage built to accommodate musicals and spectacle. This may contribute to the impression that Mark Piper's production works better as a smoothly-oiled farce than a comedy of character.
It's not inappropriate. This is early Ayckbourn, crammed with the themes marital unhappiness, male insensitivity and motifs - a woman locked out of her house, a high-ranking businessman unable to cope with everyday technology which recur throughout his early 1970s work. Here it's kept within the framework of fast-action and the staging trick of mixing action in two houses simultaneously on the same stage space.
No aggressive updating, but a few revisions to suggest 2003 are unfortunate. Ayckbourn latched on to particular aspects of the 60s/70s cusp: innocent optimism, practical defeatism, social insularity. A businessman jogging today isn't funny as it was as 30 years ago. Attitudes to marital infidelity as the punning title suggests, the comedy's subject have changed.
In particular, the pettily dominating 'small man' Featherstone (beautifully incarnated by experienced Ayckbournian Richard Kane) no longer manifests himself the same way. Lavinia Bertram (an even more experienced Ayckbournian, veteran of the multi-version Intimate Exchanges) as mousy Mary Featherstone handles the character confidently. And the point of Mary is her apparent long-haul subservience. But updated references disrupt the mental climate - though her suddenly decisive acceptance of her husband's less-than-half offered apology remains funny as ever, summing up the characters' relationship in one beautiful comic moment.
Good acting all round, with John Challis pompously distracted as the boss who organises everyone on entirely mistaken suppositions. If he ran his company that way but he probably did, along with much of British industrial management. Sue Holderness has an apt, bored confidence in her approach to life, shielded by the marital cheque-book.
If the youngest couple are least clearly placed it could be because they're the most definitely 70s people. Never mind, the performances carry Bob and Teresa well enough in this worthwhile revival.
Frank Foster: John Challis
Fiona Foster: Sue Holderness
Bob Phillips: Gary Turner
Teresa Phillips: Carli Norris
William Featherstone: Richard Kane
Mary Featherstone: Lavinia Bertram
Director: Mark Piper
Designer: Julie Godfrey
Lighting: Douglas Kuhrt
Sound: Rob Langley
Costume: Hilary Bloomfield
2003-07-20 12:46:41