Three bedroom and four couples mean someone, somewhere, is always going to be where they either shouldn’t be, are aren’t particularly welcome.
The shadow of Trevor and Susannah (Pete Ashmore and Louise Beresford), looms large over Bedroom Farce before we even meet them, and sets up the tension to come very nicely.
Malcolm and Kate ( Simon Pothecary and Lucy-Jane Quinlan) are having a house warming party, to which Trevor and Susannah are invited, while Ernest and Delia ( George Telfer and Corrinne Wicks), Trevor’s parents, are going out for an anniversary dinner, and Jan ( Georgia Burnell), Trevor’s ex, is going to the house warming alone because her husband Nick (Ricky Oakley) is stuck in bed with a bad back.
Photo Credit: Phil Stewart
This is an ensemble piece and I want to congratulate the whole cast on their comedy timing and interpretation of the characters. Ayckbourn has always written particularly beautifully for women, and this is no exception, with the ladies getting most of the cutting lines. However it is the men who get the best of the physical comedy and all credit to Ricky Oakley, as Nick, who has to stay in bed, pretty much the whole time, and perform feats of contortion to retrieve his book, which is a comic highlight of the play.
Photo Credit: Phil Stewart
The direction by Ben Roddy was tight and sharp, this is after all a farce, so there’s lots of going in and out of doors but it never strays into the frantic and the play is allowed to breathe. I also particularly enjoyed the use of the music of Nat King Cole in and around the scenes, which was very clever and classy.
Photo Credit: Phil Stewart
As with a lot of Alan Ayckbourn’s plays, especially his earlier ones, you need to set it when it was written in the 1970s, as this was, otherwise some of the dialogues and attitudes of the time just simply wouldn’t wash, and there was a couple of times I winced at the dialogue, but that’s the historical nature of the piece. It’s still, as always with Ayckbourn, a perfectly observed comedy of social manners and remains very funny. Go and see it, you won’t be disappointed.
Bedroom Farce runs until 6th September at the New Wolsey Theatre – go to their website for details of performance times and to book tickets or call the Box Office on 01473 295900
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