REVIEWS REVIEWS
Take a simple situation and muddle it up and you have Relatively Speaking, a play written and directed by Alan Ayckbourn. The situation is two young people sharing a flat in London when the telephone rings. From there on you are in the mind of Alan Ayckbourn as he mixes these two young people up with two middle aged people living what they think is a normal mundane life style in a quiet country situation.
“Relatively Speaking” is in repertory at the Round, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough from the 19th July until the 15th September, 2007. This is a No Smoking theatre.
We are taken from the London flat, designed by Jan Bee Brown, to the even more ingenious garden scene in the country, attended to by the very able stage team who transform one to the other for the use of the players and the delight of the audience.
The players give us fine performances as they live their characters. Dominic Hecht gives us Greg the naïve youth sharing the flat with the worldly Ginny played by Katie Foster-Barnes. They become acquainted with the man who thinks he is in charge, Philip, played by Philip York, who is suspicious of his reliable wife Sheila, played by Eileen Battye. All the actors can be heard in clear diction, and the author’s plain dialogue without the use of bad language is a delight. A wonderful display of the craft of acting.
Something that could be dropped from the script is the passive smoking forced on the audience; something that is not necessary to the plot or script. There is nothing worse than having to breath in someone else’s burning paper smoke.
The audience did not let this spoil their evening at the theatre, and they took a look at life that has changed little since the sixties when the play was written. It will entertain and delight playgoers for years to come. An almost perfect evening. Enjoy. © BA
Is there an Air Conditioning certificate prominently displayed in your theatre foyer stating the date of manufacture of the appliance and when the system was last inspected and serviced - if not, complain to the theatre management.
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