JOKING APART. To 8 April.
Exeter
JOKING APART
by Alan Ayckbourn
Northcott Theatre To 8 April 2006
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat 1, 8 April 2.30pm
Audio-described 6 April
Post-show discussion 30 March
Runs from 23 March – 8 April
Running time 2 hours 15 minutes with one interval
TICKETS: 01392 493493
www.northcott-theatre.co.uk
Review: Hazel Brown 23 March 2006
Ayckbourn’s picture of a happy marriage and the havoc it causes makes for a pleasant but pointless evening.
This play resulted from a challenge to Ayckbourn to write about a happy marriage. Considering that a dull subject, he created a marriage around which other crackpot couples revolve. Therein lies the problem; successful, attractive Richard and Anthea would not surround themselves with a dull vicar, his loopy wife, Richard’s lugubrious Finnish business partner and rotund wife, plus a friend with a succession of unsuitable girlfriends. By the end, you dislike this self-satisfied pair with their ‘charitable’ friendship and smug self-satisfaction.
The play starts on Bonfire night twelve years ago. The happy, successful pair give a party where they are joined by business partner Sven, his round wife Olive, neighbours Hugh and Louise (the new vicar and his neurotic wife), plus hanger-on Brian with his girlfriend Melody – Emily Pennant-Rea in her first of three brilliant incarnations.
The action continues in four yearly jumps, shifting from July to Boxing Day to August. The men are either in love with Anthea or fall for her; she blithely accepts their love while rejecting their attentions. Richard causes similar interest amongst some of the women and is a target for the men’s competitiveness.
Andrew Loudon and Lesley Harcourt are very attractive as the central pair. Jamie Chapman is the picture of miserable repression as the happy-clappy vicar, but Imogen Walker starts off too loud as the trying-too-hard wife. She comes into her own, though, at the end, by when she is on ‘happy’ pills. Steven McNicoll is good as the pedantic partner, squeezing himself into a pair of shorts far too small for him for the ill-timed Boxing Day tennis match. Felicity Duncan is suitably solicitous as Sven’s mousy wife and Rory Murray tries to make himself indispensable whilst struggling to stay young and attractive.
The set, which has to serve many purposes, is extremely busy - never a good omen. There are urns, trees, a pond, tennis court and summer house, plus steps, both grassy and stoney. The main tree even grows and sheds leaves seasonally; a shame the dying leaves on the real branches trimming the set could not affect the same transformation.
Richard: Andrew Loudon
Anthea: Lesley Harcourt
Hugh: Jamie Chapman
Louise: Imogen Walker
Sven: Steven McNicol
Olive: Felicity Duncan
Brian: Rory Murray
Melody, Mandy, Mo, Debbie: Emily Pennant-Rea
Director: Richard Baron
Designer: Edward Lipscomb
Lighting Designer: Matthew Eagland
2006-03-30 11:48:53