• Runtime: 120 minutes

• Theatre

by Alan Ayckbourn

“Now we don’t want to start Christmas like this, do we?”

The thing about Christmas is that people who may not actually like each other come together, and have to pretend to be full of benevolent yuletide cheer.

Neville and his wife Belinda are the hosts, entertaining a former colleague of Neville’s and his heavily pregnant wife. Both marriages are unhappy – the husbands are bores and the wives feel unloved and neglected. Other guests include Neville’s alcoholic sister and her hopeless GP of a husband, who is preparing for his annual puppet show, along with Belinda’s virginal unmarried sister, and her new boyfriend. And then there’s Neville’s belligerent and bigoted Uncle Harvey...

Alan Ayckbourn’s bitter and farcical comedy, dating from 1980, presents us with the forced merriment, crises, rows and tears of an unsuccessful Christmas.

This amateur production is presented by arrangement with Samuel French Ltd.