Season’s Greetings

The play Season's Greetings is a black but also farcical comedy written by Alan Ayckbourn in 1980, about the problems faced by a dysfunctional family when they get together for a family and friends reunion over the four-day Christmas period. These problems include loneliness, desirability, arguments, tears, disappointments and crushed hopes.

 The play was directed by Kath Ashworth and produced by Barry Ashworth, who had at their disposable a team of talented actors who produced some very interesting entertaining characters, with good comedic and sometimes poignant performances, although I do feel as with most of Ayckbourn’s plays the characters developed as the play progressed, which the actors in this production did very well. The cast who produced these great characters were Cassandra Moon as bored, ignored wife and hostess Belinda Bunker, her husband Neville was played by Ryan Norse, she finds him a bore and he takes her for granted spending most of his time in the tool shed, however, he is rather worried when novelist Clive played by Keiron Garlick is attracted to Belinda, and the couple try to have an illicit sexual encounter under the Christmas tree, but they are interrupted by Neville and the other guests. Clive has been invited to spend Christmas with the family by Rachel (Belinda’s sister) played by Gael Finch, who worries about her love life, but knows that she cannot compete with her sister and comes to realises her lot in life, is to be on her own. Other guests include Neville’s former work colleague, Eddie played by Matthew Kellie, who is very likable but rather hapless and argues most of the time with his heavily pregnant wife Pattie, - Jacqueline Green, Pattie would like her husband to  have more responsibility for their children and also take more notice of her. Belinda's brother-in-law, GP Bernard, played by Chris Sherburn, is rather irritating but good-hearted and wants everything to be just right for his annual puppet show performance for the children, but unfortunately it turns into a disaster after bullying eccentric Uncle Harvey -Barry Ashworth mocks the show and his performance. Harvey is a former security guard who thinks this means he has the same skills as a Special Forces Soldier, he hides knives and other weapons about his person and buys the children guns for Christmas. Then there is Bernard’s wife who is Neville’s alcoholic sister namely Auntie Phyllis- Victoria Armstrong who is permanently drunk even when cooking the Christmas Eve dinner, which is comical, but you wonder what she is trying to blot out of her life, is it that she is lonely, bored and unfulfilled. Samuel Beckett once said, “nothing is as funny as other people’s unhappiness”, and Ayckbourn is very good at hiding cruelty mockery and bullying within and behind his comedies. But this play still has many important lessons for us to learn, about relationships and the consequences of how we treat other people, as at the end there is emotional carnage, confusion and a shooting

 The pace of the play was just right, diction, projection and clarity of words was very good for much of the performance, but, just a constructive point on a few occasions some of the dialogue was a little hard to hear, which was also noted by some of the audience sitting near me in the auditorium.

 The set was a recreation of the downstairs of the Bunker family home, which included a hallway with stairs, lounge and dining room, however, there were no walls, but the audience could differentiate each room by the actions of the cast and the way they walked around the stage. There were applicable props which included a lovely puppet theatre with puppets and the very smooth scene changes along with very good sound effects and lighting helped the show run smoothly, well done to the set builders and all the backstage crew.

Congratulations to all involved in bringing this play to the stage and producing a very interesting entertaining production resulting into a very enjoyable pleasant evening

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