THE NORMAN CONQUESTS (TABLE MANNERS) till 22 May
TABLE MANNERS: part of Alan Ayckbourn's trilogy THE NORMAN CONQUESTS
(Reviewed as Part I of the trilogy)
Birmingham Rep: Tkts 0121 236 4455
Runs: 2h 10m, one interval, till 22 May
Review: Rod Dungate, 27 April 2004
Timeless and bitter-sweet
I wonder how we manage to laugh so much when there's so much pain? In the first of Ayckbourn's early trilogy presented at Birmingham Rep, people seem to get by. Ayckbourn has inhabited his world with people who manage to live from day to day by setting themselves apart, by avoiding real engagement with themselves and others. If you stick your head above the parapet (like Annie, single and looking after a bed-ridden elderly mother) the pain of the emotional landscape becomes too unbearable.
Annie tries to find shelter from the pain in a weekend away with her brother-in-law, librarian Norman, since her friend, Tom, is so deep within his protective shell it's surprising he can engage even on a superficial level. Norman is calling out to be needed since his wife, Ruth, is too wrapped up in her job. Annie's brother, Reg, puts up protective barriers to shield himself from his wife, Sarah whose own insecurity shows itself as bossiness.
In reflecting the manners and mores of the early 70s middle classes Ayckbourn is not a million miles removed from Comedy of Manners. But this company of actors don't play the manners, they inhabit the characters in a way that results in a multi-layered production. We may (and do) laugh at the way they behave and the things they say but we care genuinely for them in their plight. Who could not warm to a character who says of her much looked forward to weekend away 'The idea was absurd'. Or, after a weekend struggling to feed everyone, describes her cooking, deprecatingly, as 'oxtail soup with unidentified lumps.' This is bitter-sweet Ayckbourn.
Director Jonathan Church has imposed neither style nor period on this play; it is allowed to breath and emerge with its own timeless appeal.
Caroline Faber's Annie is a superb picture of unselfpitying exhaustion. Faber presents her as a woman more vulnerable than the others because she has built less protection, a woman who copes because she has no option. Leda Hodgson's Sarah is a great comic invention, so tense you're afraid she'll snap in two at any moment and Katharine Rogers's myopic Ruth is terrifying a dramatic combination of sharp wit, great energy and marvellous comic timing. Michael Begley (Norman) pulls off the great trick of creating a character who's a self-centred prat but one you still care about.
Norman: Michael Begley
Tom: Tony Boncza
Annie: Caroline Faber
Sarah: Leda Hodgson
Reg: Paul Raffield
Ruth: Katharine Rogers
Direction: Jonathan Church
Design: Simon Higlett
Lighting: Mark Jonathan
Music: Matthew Scott
Fights: Renny Krupinski
2004-04-28 15:58:08