Bedroom Farce

This Ayckbourn farce was first produced, as were so many of his plays, in Scarborough. This was in 1975. He once said ‘To keep an audience in their seats you need to involve them, constantly unfolding a series of unexpected twists and turns’. This play is full of them. Three bedrooms, 4 couples, total chaos! I can’t help feeling that Ayckbourn’s work is ‘of its time’ and doesn’t quite pack the punch it once did. Nevertheless, Godalming Theatre Group provided a jolly evening’s entertainment with this piece.

These three bedrooms gave us an inkling of the types of couples we were going to meet. The first, Nick and Jan’s, contained a busy hang of modern artworks; the second, Ernest and Delia’s was papered in a blousy, rose-covered wallpaper (their bedlinen sported roses too); the third, that of Kate and Malcolm, had squares of paint samples on the walls – we knew they’d just moved in.

Ernest (Steve Alais) and Delia (Madeleine Gibb) get ready to go out for a special anniversary dinner, and of course Delia takes far too long to get ready. They chat, also about their son Trevor, his strange wife Susannah, and the fact that they far preferred his previous girlfriend Jan, who was far more down to earth, and their kind of person. So this set the scene nicely for what horrors were to come.

We then meet poor Jan (Mary Logan), who is married in the meantime to the, to my mind, bit of a man-baby Nick (Andrew Blagden), who was in bed making a meal of his bad back. Jan was off out to the house-warming party of their friends Malcolm and Kate, and was determined to go despite the bleating of Nick. There was some physical comedy as she tried to remove crumbs from Nick’s side of the bed, and he yelled in agony at each movement. ‘Why me?’ he repeated at frequent intervals., This didn’t seem to be a very happy relationship, no wonder, with an ego like his, not easy to live with. Jan couldn’t wait to head off to the party.

After several minutes of attempts to retrieve his book, which Jan had inadvertently moved to the bottom of the bed whilst searching for those crumbs, moaning and groaning throughout, Nick knocks it onto the floor. This was all a bit overlaboured, to my mind, we got the message!

Easy to live with, on the other hand, was the relationship we saw between Kate (Anna Vardy) and Malcolm (David Otken). They brought humour, energy and joie de vivre to their scenes. They were full of the joys of spring, and had just moved into their new flat, as could be seen from the paint samples all over their walls. They were having a house-warming party, and among other things chatted about the fact that Jan was coming, as were her ex Trevor, and his odd new wife Susannah. Had this been wise, to invite Jan and Trevor? They, and we, were full of foreboding.

A package arrives, a house-warming present from Malcolm to Kate. Kate takes a shower, returns wearing just a towel, when Trevor arrives – the first guest and early. He marches straight into the bedroom, and a horrified Kate dashes under the covers. Trevor sits on the bed, wallowing in self-pity. He has had a huge row with Susannah, and ignores all hints to go downstairs. Other guests arrive, Kate’s bed is piled with their coats, she looks on in horror, still unable to get dressed. Anna Vardy’s terror and facial expressions were brilliant. We’ve all had guests that arrive too promptly, yet this was quite a terrifying position to be in!

Trevor was played as a fairly pathetic fellow by Daniel Bundy, we wondered what his wife Susannah would be like.

We moved back to Nick, of the bad back. In still trying to retrieve his book, he fell on the floor. More moans and groans, and a scene which seemed to go on forever as he tried to get himself back into bed. Too much time was spent on milking the humour of this predicament, Mr Ayckbourn!

Jan, Nick’s wife, arrives at the party, deposits her coat on the bed, finds Trevor there and a passionate embrace follows, at which moment of course, Susannah appears. Catastrophe! As these 3 go downstairs, Kate can finally emerge from the coat mountain and get dressed. We felt her relief.

We returned to the bedroom of Ernest and Delia, who have just got back from their very disappointing anniversary meal. Steve Alais makes quite a convincing Grumpy Old Man, Madeleine Gibb the patient wife, applying curlers and her face mask (remember those?) Feeling a bit peckish Ernest goes off to prepare what seems to be their favourite bedtime snack of sardines on toast! No sardines in the cupboard, so they end up with pilchards on toast instead, pervading the room with a fishy smell.

Back at the party, Trevor and Susannah’s row has caused all the guests to leave, so Malcolm retrieves all the coats, armful by armful from the bed. Kate takes pity on the pathetic Trevor, and says he can stay the night, rather than return to the home that he and Susannah share, much to Malcolm’s horror. David Otken played Malcolm rather well, he was quite believable, one felt for him.

Jan confesses the kiss to Nick. Susannah turns up at Delia and Ernest’s house (her parents-in-law), and ends up sleeping in their bed with Delia, whilst Ernest gets banished to the damp spare room. Keely Graham played Susannah as a ditsy, highly-strung, rather pathetic figure, not at all the type of daughter-in-law Ernest could appreciate. ‘It’s like sleeping next door to a girls’ dorm’ he snorted at one stage, obviously considering Susannah a suitable case for treatment.

Trevor turns up at Nick and Kate’s. Nobody gets any sleep it seems. Malcolm insists on assembling Kate’s cupboard, obviously with disastrous results, and a fair bit of comedy.

Susannah and Trevor make up, of course, having left a night of havoc in their wake. A fun production by GTG of this old classic.

 

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