|
|
Round and Round the Garden
Malvern Theatres
**** AN overgrown
bouncy housedog is how Alan Ayckbourn portrays Norman, the pivotal
character in his play
Round and Round the Garden
which forms part of his Norman Conquests trilogy. Jumping up at each of the women in turn, Annie,
Sarah and Ruth (his long-suffering wife), he provides charm, humour,
emotional extravagance, colour and wild immoral behaviour which leaves
each of them exasperated with him and yet tolerant. The action of the play takes place in the neat
garden of a detached country house over a weekend. Annie, Ruth and Reg
are siblings, but Annie who is single is the one who cares for their
ageing mother who lives upstairs. Reg and Sarah arrive to give her
relief for a couple of nights when she intends to go away, mooching on
her own, possibly to be joined by Tom for a dirty weekend, or even by
Norman for a couple of nights off-piste in East Grinstead. However plans for departure are overtaken and
they end up having a drink-soaked evening in which Norman gets
significantly drunk. The weekend unfolds in an unexpected way therefore,
until it is time to leave on the Monday. Here is Ayckbourn’s brilliant wit bringing
colourful characters together who are in a way rather lost in their
morally liberalised world of the 70s and 80s, The men in particular are
rather eccentric: Tom is emotionally illiterate almost to the point of
autism; Reg is very talkative, technical and hen-pecked; Norman
engagingly and incorrigibly irresponsible in his deceptions and
flirtations. Ayckbourn’s humour derives from the mixture of
characters and the witty dialogue at which he is so clever, and his
skilful use of repetition and echo. Simple devices like the unfolding of
a deckchair become funny when repeated to underline the comic
eccentricities of character. The show is brought to humorous life by a
talented cast from producers Talking Scarlet. Philip Stewart holds the
attention with his mischievous portrayal of Norman, but the effect would
not be successful without the balance and contrasts provided by his
matter-or-fact, somewhat cynical yet tolerant wife Ruth; by Reg’s
joviality and preoccupation with endless and meaningless details of
cartography and fusewire etc; and by Tom’s totally contrasting inability
to understand and manage relationships with women. Ben Roddy plays Tom with a wonderfully straight
face and tone of voice. When he completely misunderstands Ruth’s irony
in Act Two and assaults her on the lawn, the audience convulsed with
laughter. Jo Castleton brilliantly portrayed the anguish of one who was
longing for affection, yet despairing at Tom’s inability to communicate
it. The performances of all the cast were excellent.
The design of the garden, the rear of the house and the archway were
pleasing and provided the necessary context for the real action of the
play. Ayckbourn once again charms us with his humorous analysis of, and
sympathy for, characters who are rather lost in an amoral universe and
striving to find fulfilment through the complex network of human
relationships. To 20-02-16 Tim Crow
|
|
|