Archives - November 2011

HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES
by Alan Ayckbourn

Produced by Gareth Jones

THE PLAY

Fiona Foster was out late the previous night: a fact hardly unnoticed by her businessman husband Frank, as she missed their wedding anniversary and left him to drink the wine he'd bought her on his own.

Bob Phillips was also out late: something his stressed and harried wife Teresa, left alone with baby Benjamin, also failed to overlook. When pressed on the subject, Bob confesses to having spent the evening drinking with a distantly-known fellow employee - one William Featherstone - who, apparently, needed a confidant to ask for advice about his wife's suspected affair. After a hurried phone conversation with Bob, Fiona explains to Frank that she was out with William's wife Mary - who, apparently suspects her husband of having an affair...

It does not come as good news to Fiona when Frank announces that William will be joining his department, working alongside Bob, and that William and Mary are coming to dinner. Nor to Bob, when Teresa takes matters into her own hands and invites William and Mary over for dinner the following night.

{NB: The dinner scenes actually occur simultaneously and on the same stage in the play, although they are supposed to be on separate evenings].

Mary proves to be a nervous, downtrodden lady, with William something of an obsequious bully, dominating her whilst sucking up to his superiors. Dinner at Frank and Fiona's is an excruciating experience, with Frank offering clumsily-camouflaged marital advice amongst endlessly tedious anecdotes, mercifully ending when the toilet above William starts to leak. Dinner at Bob and Teresa's is worse, as Bob has stormed off down to the pub. Teresa gets drunk, serves them some inedible soup and has a fight with Bob when he returns, resulting in the soup being thrown all over William.

Subsequently, Teresa walks out on Bob, who seems unperturbed when Mary drops by the following morning to offer to help clean up. As Teresa is a dreadful housekeeper, this presents quite a challenge and Bob is happy to accept her help. Meanwhile, Teresa has visited Frank and Fiona and realised that the only affair going on is between Bob and Fiona. Frank, inevitably, has the wrong end of the stick, believing it to be between Bob and Mary.

When he phones Bob and Mary - in mid-clean - answers the phone, his suspicions are confirmed. Attempting to be helpful, he tells them to William - who promptly goes around to Bob's house and punches him out. In the meanwhile, Teresa has returned to Bob, and responds by flooring William.

Frank attempts to repair the peace by summoning both couples and apologising for misleading them. Mary uses the opportunity to get the upper hand on William and demand an apology from him. Bob and Teresa are reconciled. And finally Frank realises that Fiona has been lying to him all along: she confesses and asks for forgiveness, without naming names. Frank figures out that the other party must be Bob, but when he phones the Phillips, it is Teresa who answers...and the two of them agree to meet up...

FROM THE GROUP

My favourite plays tend to be those that present a technical challenge, or the opportunity to do something new with a set - something this certainly offered. We've worked with split and combination sets before, with the various divides having varying degrees of rigidity and structure, but this had to serve as both split and single rooms at various points. With the aid of some lighting and a studiously neutral colour scheme, the layout to achieve this proved fairly straightforward. It was just the mountains of furniture that had to be shifted on and off at various times that presented rather more difficulty...

Anyway, it kept us in the backstage busy on the nights, which is always a nice thing. Fortunately, not too busy to enjoy the sharp, barbed humour of the immensely amusing on-stage antics brought to life by a well-rehearsed and confident cast. A good play done well, in my humble opinion.

Mike - Stage Manager

The Production Diary

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