I have always been a fan of Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s plays and I’ve seen and been in a fair few in my time. Table Manners is a particularly favourite and I’ve seen it several times. It’s part of a trilogy of plays called The Norman Conquests, where the six characters are in the living room ( Living Together), in the garden (Round and Round The Garden), and in the dining room – hence Table Manners- and the three plays fit together perfectly, over the course of a tense family weekend.
Out of the three this is the one that gets performed the most, probably because it can stand alone better than the other two.
The thing about early Ayckbourn is it needs to be set when it was written, in this case the 1970s, partly due to plot devices and partly due to how he highlights the social conventions of the time, especially when it comes to women, who I’ve always felt he’s written for very well.
Photo Credit: Phil Stewart – Lucy-Jane Quinlan as Annie and Toby Manley as Tom
Annie is trying to get away from her elderly mother for a few days, so her brother Reg and sister in law Sarah arrive to look after Mum and the rambling old family home. But Annie has a secret and when Norman, who is married to Annie’s other sibling Ruth, and Tom, Annie’s introverted admirer, clash, it all kicks off.
Annie is a difficult character to play ( I should know I’ve played her), as she can come across as wet and unsympathetic in the wrong hands, but Lucy-Jane Quinlan gives her a sexy tomboy quality that put me in mind of Felicity Kendal as Barbara in The Good Life. She made a holey jumper and jeans look fabulous yet the character has no idea she has any allure at all, and that gives her tremendous charm.
And if you have a Barbara then you have to have a Margo! Joanna Simpkins steals the show as fussy, uptight Sarah, who organises everything and everyone and takes great delight in telling you how exhausting it all is! You could literally see Sarah’s nerve endings jangling at the rising tension of her, quite frankly, horrible family. The friend I went with and myself both said we know Sarahs, we have met Sarahs and we doubt there’s a school playground in the land that doesn’t have at least one Sarah in it!
Sarah’s husband Reg, played by Pete Ashmore, is the kind of chap who wants a quiet life and is quite content to allow Sarah to run around after him, whilst he delights in winding her up. It’s a difficult balance to make Reg likeable, especially in today’s age, as he can come across as cruel and sexist, but he’s played with affable charm.
Photo Credit: Phil-Stewart – Ross Waiton as Norman
Norman is a complex character to play who sees life in the most simplistic terms and could charm the birds from the trees. On paper his philandering ways should be totally unsympathetic but in order for the play to work he has to be shambolically loveable, like a lost child you want to mother, and that’s why, eventually all the women fall for him. Ross Waiton balances Norman’s annoying, persistent ‘look at me’ childishness with his romantic side with relish and excellent comic timing.
Ruth, Norman’s wife, is another tricky character as she literally couldn’t care a jot what any of the family think of her and is the most unsympathetic of the lot. She’s totally self absorbed and a complete workaholic, which Polly Smith conveys along with the snooty, ‘I don’t have time for this’ persona. I was rather distracted by Ruth’s dress, which almost caused a wardrobe malfunction at one point and either needs to be changed or have a very period 1970s ‘slip’ put under it to stop the static.
Toby Manley made me want to shake luck lustre Tom, the vet from next door, who never manages to say the right thing, and that’s exactly as it should be. The audience need to feel utterly frustrated at his complete inability to seize any kind of opportunity to woo poor Annie, and we all wanted to yell at him ‘do something you fool or you’ll lose her.’
The Norman Conquests were written and first performed in 1973 – over 50 years ago now, and need to be treated as a period piece. Half the misunderstandings and complications could be easily sorted out if the characters had mobile phones, if the shops were open on a Sunday or someone could order a quick Deliveroo take-away – so it all has to stay exactly where it is to make any sense. The social norms and conventions that mean so much to a character like Sarah also belong in that age too. Who now cares if you are seated boy/girl at a family dinner or if someone is using the ‘good table mats’? But back then it was part of ‘nice middle class life’ – the very thing Ayckbourn set about holding up to the light and exposing as quite frankly ridiculous.
If you weren’t around in the 70s or don’t know much about that time you may not see how satirical and cutting it was and how it changed theatre for that age, but for me Ayckbourn’s early work, such as Table Manners, will always be a classic.
Table Manners runs until Saturday 28th September at the New Wolsey Theatre – tickets are available online on their Website or by calling the Box office on 01473 295900
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