Living Together: To 25 June.
Basingstoke
LIVING TOGETHER
by Alan Ayckbourn
Haymarket Theatre In rep to 25 June 2004.
MonSat 7.45 pm Mat: 12th,17th,20th June 3:00pm
Audio-described 17 June 3.00 pm
BSL Signed 22 June
Pay what you Can 14 June
Page-to-Stage Day: 17 June 3.00 pm
Runs 1hr 50min One Interval
TICKETS: 01256 465566
www.haymarket.org.uk
Review Mark Courtice: 10 June 2004
Another week end at Basingstoke this time it's funnier.Coward's Hay Fever was the Haymarket's last production, and now they feature another ghastly week-end, this time in two plays from Alan Ayckbourn's 1973 classic trilogy The Norman Conquests. Thankfully these are both funnier and more interesting.
The plays cover events when librarian Norman seems to offer both his sisters-in-law a brief chance to escape their unfulfilling relationships for a fling in East Grinstead. Living Together views events from the living room, notable for a rug that redefines the term shag-pile.
The set is the same as that for Hay Fever. Given that Coward and Ayckbourn are good sellers, a new set could have been afforded, surely? Perhaps they could make even more profits by featuring another of English theatre's big earners, and have Lady Macbeth come down these self-same stairs exclaiming What, in our house!
However, Elmore's set works well as a dirty brown museum (as one character describes it) version of the Noel Coward country villa of last month and the contrast is an interesting one.
The plot is driven by sex (for example, bedridden mother upstairs is remembered for the variety and lack of discrimination in her sex life). Norman thinks he's magnetic, but his major attraction is that he is available and keen. Despite this, many of the performances here could do with more neediness, and this Norman is sexy by chance not nature.
The production is otherwise full of value. Peter Hamilton Dyer makes the casually destructive Norman sweet as well as self absorbed. Caron Pascoe gives as good as she gets as his wife Ruth, driven almost crazy by her unreliable spouse.
Although some of the younger members of the cast do not avoid caricature it will be interesting to see Alison McKenna's Sarah in the companion piece, Round and Round the Garden, where she has more to do .
Kate Dove's production knows how to use the impeccable construction of the play, riding the climaxes, and keeping control of pace, although the whole enterprise seems a little stately at times - a bit more rush could help.
Reg: Alan Blyton
Sarah: Alison McKenna
Ruth: Caron Pascoe
Norman: Peter Hamilton Dyer
Annie: Catrin Aaron
Tom: Anthony Washington
Director: Kate Dove
Designer: Elroy Ashmore
Lighting: Simon Freakley
2004-06-14 00:24:51