RELATIVELY SPEAKING. To 20 October.
Scarborough
RELATIVELY SPEAKING
by Alan Ayckbourn.
Stephen Joseph Theatre (The Round) In rep to 15 September then tour to 20 October 2007.
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
TICKETS: 01723 370541.
www.sjt.uk.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 11 August.
Fine comedy in a perfect revival, not to be missed.
Forty years ago this comedy’s London production made the capital aware of Alan Ayckbourn as a writer of sparkling comedy. It was led by Michael Hordern and Celia Johnson as the affluent middle-aged couple living in Buckinghamshire, visited on a Sunday morning by two young people. The quartet are linked by businessman Philip, who’s had a fling with young employee Ginny. He’s still sending her flowers and chocolates, filling her London flat, and the mind of boyfriend Greg with suspicions.
Ayckbourn spins a fine web of misunderstandings in a brilliantly sustained dialogue of cross-purposes. But the ingenuity lies also in the placing of partial revelations as the pair in the dark begin finding out how their other halves have been loving.
All four become deliriously enmeshed in the web of lies and innocently misleading statements the situation produces. Yet each character remains believable. And time’s passing has made the play a period-piece rather than merely dating it. Only a reference to currency restrictions specifically recalls the original period, though the polite hospitality with which Sheila greets an unknown young man entering her garden bespeaks a safer, more trusting age.
No London stars for Scarborough’s revival, but a superbly-balanced cast of exemplary actors inhabit Ayckbourn’s joyous production. Dominic Hecht brings youthful naivety and ever-eager vocal cadences to young Greg. Katie Foster-Barnes seems protective even as she deceives him, showing a sympathetic impatience with her boyfriend’s questions and probing, and a glorious moment as she comes to an immediate halt midstream on discovering his arrival at her ex-lover’s home.
There’s a fine contrast too between Eileen Battye’s Sheila, responding calmly to events, sure sign of someone who knows life and her husband well (later Ayckbourn women in her mould will suffer more), and Philip, to whom Philip York brings his clipped tones, the vocal ability to imply more than he’s saying and sharp visual registering of surprise.
Author-director and actors never put a foot wrong; nor does the stage-management team, who add to the enjoyment as they efficiently transform Jane Bee Brown’s ingenious set from cheap rented bedroom to affluent suburban garden.
Greg: Dominic Hecht.
Ginny: Katie Foster-Barnes.
Philip: Philip York.
Sheila: Eileen Battye.
Director: Alan Ayckbourn.
Designer: Jan Bee Brown.
Lighting: Kath Geraghty.
2007-08-18 02:15:35