THEATRE REVIEWS

What I should do is explain that this is Ayckbourn at his tricky best with the gimmick of two plays running simultaneously in the same theatre. Each play is staged under part of the main title “House and Garden”, thus the House is staged in the McCarthy theatre and the Garden is in the Round. The same cast peoples both plays as they prepare for a fete in the garden, spilling over into the auditorium of the theatre, and visitors to the house.

In the house we have Ayckbourn as entertaining as ever giving us a glimpse of a family invaded by a government fixer and a French film star.

The play starts somewhat bewilderingly for some of the audience, as day breaks, accompanied by emerging bird song through the windows of the sitting room of the house. This tends to give a traditional slow start to the play, but things are soon up and running at full speed.

A long suffering wife Trish Platt, nicely played by Eileen Battye, appears to be oblivious of her husband’s existence. Treating him as though he is not there. Something that is in different ways projected by other characters as the play progresses.

The husband Teddy is played by Robert Blythe with the vague profile of a man fumbling his way through life amused by passing woman, but with very little direction or self recognisable ability. The teenage daughter Sally, played by Charlie Hayes, sees nothing that does not affect her imagined needs whilst being pursued by the boy next door Jack played with bewildered expectance by Danny Nutt, who is finding his way into manhood.

When the government fixer arrives, a man who uses people for his own needs, with a name to match, Gavin Ryng-Mayne with a “y”, slimily played by Terence Booth, to see Teddy about some post which is totally outside Teddy’s capabilities, things start to liven up.

Teddy confides in his next door neighbour Giles Mace, played by Barry McCarthy about his problems with his wife, but omits to tell him that his wife Joanna Mace played by Janie Dee has been one of his attractions.

A French actress Lucille Cadeau, played by a French actress Sabine Azema, arrives and Teddy is distracted.

Nice cameo pieces are played by Antonia Pemberton, the cook come housekeeper Izzie Truce, Peter Laird as the gardener Warn Coucher and Alison Senior as the lively maid Lindy Love.

Exclusion from relationships is what this is all about. You could say it is a number of people weaving their way round a Maypole with little success. Watching them go about their tasks is fascinating to watch as Ayckbourn goes about his usual skilled direction of his own play.

I cannot wait to see what goes on in the garden.

Only one real problem, Roger Glossop still has not solved the mysteries of the stage in the McCarthy theatre. Scale seems to have eluded him this time with paintings that are too big for the set.

You could lose your way in this magnificent garden set designed by Roger Glossop, and Alan Ayckbourn obviously did.

Most of the characters use the garden as a corridor to the house where most of the action is taking place. The lady of the house Trish Platt hardly visits this garden, even though the village fete is about to take place there that day. Something that is hard to believe. When she does visit she only comes out with a string of obscenities.

This play gives the impression that it had been tacked on as an afterthought, with characters behaving differently in the garden to what they did in the house. Sally Platt played by Charlie Hayes is almost nice to Jake Mace played by Danny Nutt, who also seems to be more grown up.

An attempt has been made to allow the characters to reveal part of their character that was not made apparent in the house. Others such as Gavin Ryng–Mayne have little to do, but pass through taking Lindy Love on the way.

Characters such as the Loves, played by Simon Green and Alison Senior, were not give strong enough parts to hold the play together — they tried as the dominering husband and the long suffering wife, but needed more to do than bring in and erect trestle tables. Poor Peter Laid playing the gardener Warn Coucher would be lost for something to do had he not been given a wheelbarrow.

This is not the sort of part that Janie Dee should be given for she did not convince as a neurotic lover Joanna Mace — it was more a case of what she was asked to do whilst on stage, such as try to hang herself with a sort scarf on a tree high above her head. It was obvious it was only attention seeking, but it did not work for this talented actress.

Izzie Truce’s Malaprops held the scenes together in which she was involved, but these were only gimmicks to bring laughs. Pearl Truce, played by Jennifer Luckcraft, added to her domestic skills in the house with a flirtatious dance with the wronged husband Giles Mace, nicely played by Barry McCarthey.

The only zip came from Teddy Platt played by Robert Blythe and the alcoholic French actress Lucille Cadeau who was played with ravishing French style by Sabine Azema.

It was a case of a writer trying to do too much and not getting away with it. It barely worked because this half of the play had not been developed strongly enough for the the fine actors who were waiting to play their part.

No satisfactory conclusion to this play. A pity. © BA

“House and Garden” was in repertory until the 10th of July, 1999, before going to the National theatre in 2000.