Relatively Speaking

It was the final performance I attended, and every seat was taken in the auditorium; this play has great appeal and was the comedy that made Alan Ayckbourn’s name in 1967. It is a comedy of mistaken identities and misunderstanding and David Stone’s direction did the play justice for it was insightful, with spot on timing that maintained pace and characters that were believable.

The set for the opening scene was effectively created as a trendy sixties, rather cramped, London bedsit, adorned with posters of the era.

This where we first meet Greg, played by Gabriel Campbell and Ginny, (Hannah Robbins), who live together in her flat. Ginny is ready to catch a train, supposedly so she can see her parents out of town. The phone rings but when Greg answers it, the caller hangs up. He finds bunches of flowers everywhere and his suspicions are further aroused when he finds a large pair of men’s slippers under her bed. Confused and suspicious Greg is nevertheless besotted enough to want to marry Ginny and when she leaves for her parents’ home, he decides to follow her, after finding a scribbled address, to ask her father for her hand in marriage. He is not aware that Ginny is making the journey to Buckinghamshire to end her romance with Philip (Christopher Waters), her former employer, a much older man married to Sheila (Kerry Jones). Greg gets to the house before Ginny and meets Philip’s wife, Sheila, and from there on, a series of crossed purposes ensue.

The shoebox flat was remarkably transformed, magically, in minutes, into a magnificent setting for the duration of the play. A sunlit garden patio was presented, complete with realistic whitewashed walls, adorned with garden shrubbery and topped with bright flowers. This transformation was not only swift but offered a sharp contrast to the dingy flat, impressed the audience I believe, for there was an audible gasp at the scene change. The team of set builders not only created stunning and most fitting scenery, but also cleverly ensured a sizeable acting area. Amazing! Lighting and sound added further realism.

It is in this setting, the home of Philip and Sheila, that we see them enjoying morning breakfast, birdsong too, in the background. We see beaming Sheila, the long-suffering wife, dressed in a pink negligee and slippers and husband Philip, petulant and patronising. Open exchanges between the couple were audible and natural but suggested that Sheila was unhappy and seemingly was trying to create her own imagined lover.

When Greg presents himself to Sheila, arriving earlier than Ginny, Sheila is welcoming and invites him to lunch even though she has no idea who this rather inarticulate young man can be. Chaos ensues as Philip tries to cover the tracks of his affair with Ginny.

All four actors delivered fine performances: all word perfect, fluent with perfectly timed reactions. Gabriel Campbell presented the role of Greg with a bemused innocence and the right amount of naivety. Hannah Robbins was suitably self-assured and instinctive in her role of Ginny, forced to weave a web of deceit to save the day. Kerry Jones was fabulous as Sheila. She used body language, gesture, and voice tone to great effect with facial expressions registering to the audience her bewilderment and confusion. She managed too, to make the audience laugh. Christopher Waters was faultless in his delivery and his characterisation of Philip was fitting. He sauntered onto the scene as a man at ease with his life but also as a man that could both antagonise and deceive, quite believable in fact.

Well done to the crew and cast. Congratulations to David Stone, for this was a wonderful evening’s performance that was entertaining and, in some parts, humorous.  Alan Ayckbourn’s script lifted off the pages successfully.

 

 

 

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