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Robert Powell (left) as Philip, Liza Goddard as his wife Sheila, Josephine Timmins as Ginny and Anthony Eden as Greg Relatively Speaking
Belgrade Theatre
***** IT’S not often I get the chance to echo
Noel Coward – but I agree wholeheartedly – “A beautifully constructed
and very, very funny comedy. I enjoyed every moment of it”. Mr Coward was talking about the first performance
when Ayckbourn was largely unknown and only 28 – it had Richard Briers,
Michael Hordern and Celia Johnson plus Jennifer Hilary at the Duke of
York’s in March 1967. Mrs Howard, in 2016, was in Coventry enjoying the
same play with Robert Powell and Liza Goddard just as much. While I’m name-dropping, Alan Bennett said that
“happiness is a toffee in your pocket”. The anticipation of
misunderstanding on a gargantuan scale has you on the edge of mirth
throughout. It is carried off to great effect by the quality of the
cast; a four-hander with Lindsey Campbell and Antony Eden as Ginny and
Greg. Ginny and Greg have only just met and Ginny, a
sixties’ free woman, with a ‘past’ that she is cagey about sharing with
her new lover, also the flat is full of flowers and chocolates that
continue to arrive. But Greg is quite naïve and already smitten enough
to propose. The first scene, in a crumpled modern flat, is
brilliant in building the picture and the gradual unfolding of the story
is pure genius. Greg puts his feet out of Ginny’s single bed first thing
on a Sunday morning to find an alien pair of slippers under his feet.
His questioning is subtle and clever. Ginny is planning a trip to see
her ‘parents’ at The Willows in Bucks. (I could have lived in that house
– though back in 1967 I think in two hours I detected a single aircraft
overhead…) He decides to follow – but arrives first. At The
Willows he meets Philip and Sheila (Robert Powell and Liza Goddard)
having a leisurely breakfast on the patio. Sheila is a neglected but
good wife teasing her husband that there might be a fancy man. Greg’s
solo arrival fuels the fire. The rest is breathtaking but follows
naturally from that one assumption. When Ginny arrives and we see the
real relationship between her and Philip, as does Sheila in the end, her
resolution is both clever and resourceful. There’s still the question of
the slippers… This is first rate, hysterically funny and well
worth a look. I’d love to go again! Directed by Robin Herford, it runs
to 05-11-16 Jane Howard 31-10-16
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