• Runtime: 120 minutes

• Theatre

by Alan Ayckbourn

Two and a half couples gather at an executive style house in the 1970s for a tea party they would all rather miss. There are Paul and Diana: he’s a young, successful, squash-playing, businessman with no time for emotions and even less time for his wife, whose place is definitely in the kitchen, or their young children (shunted off to boarding school). There’s John, older and much less successful, hopelessly trying to win a contract from Paul; he’s recently married a younger, glamorous wife, Evelyn, who is already disillusioned by her husband, marriage and their baby. And there’s motherly Marge, always trying to help and desperate for a child, but having to make do by infantilising her husband who, as usual, is ill in bed.

They have arranged this tea party to welcome back Colin, an old friend who moved away two or three years ago but has returned to the area after his fiancée was drowned in an accident. As they wait for his arrival, none of the others are sure how they will cope with his unhappiness...

A familiar Ayckbourn picture of suburban angst and pretension, where superficial competence barely hides hopelessness and despair – while managing to be also very funny. Unlike many of his plays, though, it’s also very suitable for online performance with a single set and all the action taking place in real time. Some of the attitudes might seem dated – surely we have made some progress in gender understanding in the last fifty years – but it’s still surprisingly relevant today.

This amateur production of “Absent Friends” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk