Confusions

Confusions by Alan Ayckbourn, is made up of five one act plays which are connected in some way either by a character or a location, but overall by the human condition of loneliness. It was originally written for five actors taking on all the roles, but this Company had decided to give an opportunity to more actors and directors. This production had 14 actors taking 22 roles, and five directors, one for each play. It was staged in the round on the floor of the Hall rather than on the stage, which was used for seating. This offered a more flexible acting area with a variety of entrances but gave a challenge to the lighting team. As there were five different locations there was no actual set, the space was furnished appropriately for each play, with Gosforth’s Fete being the most technically challenging. The plays are all different ranging between gentle comedy, farce and pathos.

‘Mother Figure’ directed by Alison Bagnall

This play centres round Lucy, housewife and mother of three, whose husband is frequently away and so she is left alone looking after the children. She is so absorbed by childcare that she has almost forgotten there is an outside world, to the extent that she never answers the phone or the door unless she has to. This play was set in the sitting room of Lucy’s house after the children are in bed. Lucy, who does not now bother to get dressed, is clearing up all the abandoned toys and sorting the washing when her concerned neighbour manages to gain access. She is concerned for Lucy, as Lucy’s husband, Harry, has rung her to say he cannot get a response from Lucy and wants to know if anything is wrong, he has given his contact phone number to Rosemary, the neighbour, and asked her to pass it on. (We have to remember the plays were written more than 30 years ago before the widespread use of mobile phones!) When Rosemary realises what a state Lucy is in she enlists the help of her husband Terry, to try to help. But as Terry is a chauvinist with no respect for either woman it does not help. Lucy reverts to being ‘mother’ and is quickly treating them both like children, which puts Terry in his place and helps restore Rosemary and Terry’s precarious relationship. This was a gentle play, which explored different forms of loneliness. Lucy was well played as the harassed mother, keeping in ‘mother’ mode with anyone she encountered. I was not sure that Rosemary understood her character until Lucy took control, she seemed to be moving about with no real purpose, but then she convincingly reverted to childhood. Terry was played as a man with a total lack of understanding, who did not know how to assert himself when Lucy took charge; you hoped that his treatment of Rosemary would improve as a result of the encounter. Director Alison Bagnall had helped to bring out the vulnerable side of Rosemary’s character, and had used the space well.

‘Drinking Companions’ directed by Naomi Dunn

This shows what Harry, the husband of Lucy, in the first play, is up to while he is away.  It takes place in the bar of the hotel he is staying in, where he is trying, unsuccessfully, to phone his wife and then starts a conversation with young, attractive, perfume saleswoman, Paula, who is waiting for a friend. Harry, who thinks of himself as a bit of a ladies man, tries to chat her up. He continues to ply her with drinks whilst making increasingly unsubtle suggestions. Paula’s friend Bernice arrives and he tries to move in on her.  He offers his room key to them but neither girl is interested. When he goes out to find a taxi for them they leave by a side entrance. There was a nice contrast between Paula and Bernice, Paula being quite a warm character, who, although becoming increasingly embarrassed by Harry’s advances, is too polite to be downright rude, whereas Bernice sums up the situation and wants to be off showing no subtlety in her dislike of him and not caring if she hurts his feelings. Harry was well played as a man who thinks himself a bit of a Romeo, but actually has a sad life and unhappy marriage.  His gradual inebriation was well done.

Between Mouthfuls directed by Helen Cornes and David Walker.

This is a cleverly constructed play, it is set in the dining room of the previous hotel, two couples at adjoining tables are having dinner, served by the same waiter, we hear snatches of their conversations as the waiter moves within earshot of each couple. The older couple Mr and Mrs Pearce, are not aware of the younger couple, Martin and Polly, but it turns out that Mr Pearce is Martin’s boss. We learn from the conversations that Mr Pearce has been away on a business trip for three weeks, and that his wife believes he is having an affair, and she is trying to find out who the woman is. At the other table Martin can only talk about how he has run the business in the absence of his Boss, who has been away on holiday. Martin’s wife, Polly, who has also been away for three weeks, is becoming increasingly upset by his apparent lack of interest in their relationship.  Both women leave the restaurant individually without their husbands. The play had been well cast with each actor making the most of their roles. The tension began to rise as the play progressed, with the inscrutable waiter learning all the secrets and giving nothing away. The ‘silent dialogue’ was excellent continuing when the waiter moved away by expressions, hand movements and body language; we could see how it was progressing. I would have preferred the movement between tables to have been a bit quicker but it was all very well done.

Gosforth’s Fete directed by Adrian Dennis.

This is pure farce and was the only play of the five that I had seen previously. It is a technically challenging play, as most farces usually are. In true farce fashion everything goes wrong at this Summer Fete, the PA system is broken and then suddenly starts working again at the wrong moment; the tap on the tea urn cannot be turned off; the teetotal Cub Leader is devastated by news he receives and drinks himself into a stupor on sherry, so abandoning the unruly cubs, leaving them to their own devices to cause havoc; the guest speaker is electrocuted; the rostrum guard rail has not been secured; and of course the inevitable thunder storm. Farce is a very difficult genre to work in but Director Adrian Dennis had helped his cast achieve the timing required. Everyone had developed individual characters which came across well, the posh Mrs Smythe who ends up being electrocuted, harassed Milly, trying to serve the teas, the devastated cub leader Stewart, the slightly bumbling Vicar who is nearly electrocuted and of course the overworked, overstressed Gosforth who is trying to rescue his Fete from utter chaos.  The mayhem during Mrs Smythe’s speech was wonderful; I do not know how she carried on. There were good sound effects in this play, especially the thunder. A very funny play well executed.

A Talk In The Park directed by Jenny Dennis

This was the most poignant play of the evening set in the same park where the Fete took place. There were some good sound effects, which took us to the park. There are four benches each with a person sitting on them and then a fifth, Arthur, joins them and sits on a bench and starts a conversation with Beryl, who wants to be left alone. After a time she gets up and sits down next to Charles and proceeds to complain about Arthur boring her and not stopping talking and then goes on to tell her story, which Charles is not interested in, so he moves to the next bench; and so it continues in a circle with no one interested in what the others have to say. They are all lonely people with an urgent need to talk to someone but no one is interested in listening to others. It opened with a long monologue from Arthur and then each told their story in characters which suited the dialogue, all very different people with different accents.

It was an interesting evening with good sound effects for the different plays, although staging in the round, makes life a little more difficult for the lighting crew, it gave the cast the opportunity to work in a larger area and no one was put off by the close proximity of the audience. Furniture and props had been well thought out, reusing furniture in different guises, everything worked very well. It was an interesting and enjoyable evening, well done everyone.

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