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.
CAST
Neville
Paul Spruce
Belinda
Arwen Makin
Phyllis
Dawn Price
Harvey
Stephen Herring
Bernard
Matthew Clapp
Rachel
Jemma Froggitt
Eddie
James Whitby
Pattie
Carrie Gaunt
Clive
Steve Mitchell
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Season's Greetings - Lace Market Theatre
A perfect Christmas hit
AN extended family get-together over three days? You don't need to be an authority on this sub-genre of English theatre to guess that it might turn into a shambolic disaster. And since this is Christmas and the play's an Alan Ayckbourn, guessing needn't come into it.
Season's Greetings is quintessential Ayckbourn. There's the unspoken middle-class domestic one-upmanship and craving to conform. And its all very near the bone because these are only slightly exaggerated personality types, the sort we recognise in other people, and, disconcertingly, in ourselves. Then there are the children, mercifully off-stage.
And, of course, its richly comical.
It's also firmly eighties - no mobiles and no mention of gays, just homosexuals, about which there is a polite but ever-present anxiety. And giving toy guns for Christmas has begun to be an issue. All nine characters, none of them caricatures, are beautifully delineated by both playwright and cast.
Paul Spruce is an excellent Neville, the practical type, born with a screwdriver in his hand. Arwen Makin, in the outstanding performance, is Belinda, his wife, romantically and sexually unfulfilled. Arguably, the best moment in the play is when she and unknown but handsome novelist Clive (Steve Mitchell), brought along by her sister, meet and instantly fall in lust.
Rachel, the sister, who actually seems to love Clive, is Jemma-Dawn Froggitt in one of her best performances to date. And Matt Clapp is more than effective as Bernard, a useless doctor and failing puppeteer, despised by all. One could go on...
Emma Pegg's realistic set is excellent, her puppets and puppet theatre brilliant. And the costumes, especially the patterned pullover and ghastly shirt sported by Eddie (James Whitby), well and truly in period.
Director Peter Konowalik has a box office success on his hands.
"Season's Greetings" by Alan Ayckbourn
Nottingham Lace Market Theatre
The follow up to Ayckbourn’s “Absurd Person Singular” in regards to festive plays, and you can see just why this is a favourite for this time of year, performed on a regular basis up and down the country by both local theatre and professional groups.
It’s Christmas Eve at the Bunker household and Belinda and Neville are hosting. Neville slightly distracted by his various gadgets and Belinda tending the tree and being the perfect hostess. Bernard, a doctor, apparently not a very good one, Harvey, the Uncle is in front of the TV, watching some violence, and Neville and Eddie are engrossed in constructing remote control Christmas Tree lights. Rachel, Belinda’s sister is awaiting Clive, a writer who is in a non-starter of a relationship with Rachel. When Clive turns up, he seems to have eyes for someone else in the Bunker family.
Throw into the mix a heavily pregnant Pattie and her selfish and quite lazy husband, Eddie and Bernard's lush of a wife, Phyllis.
Act One sets the scene, and introduces all of the characters in the play, and gets you ready for an explosive, but very funny Act Two.
There are several wonderfully funny highlights within Act Two, which I won’t spoil but involve a brilliantly entertaining puppet show, created and performed by Bernard, a mechanical toy and the remote control Christmas Tree lights.
While being one of Ayckbourn’s funniest plays, he also highlights the sadness wallowing under the surface of suburbia and the pressure that some people are put under at Christmas to live up to what others expect of them.
Paul Spruce (Neville), Arwen Makin (Belinda), Dawn Gutteridge (Phyllis), Stephen Herring (Harvey), Matthew Clapp (Bernard), Jemma-Dawn Froggitt (Rachel), James Whitby (Eddie), Carrie Gaunt, who makes her Lace Market Theatre debut here (Pattie) and Steve Mitchell (Clive) are perfectly cast and the comedy flows naturally from them all.
You will find yourself recognising situations and traits in these characters, either in yourself or in people you know, and this is an additional bit of fun on top of this beautifully crafted comedy.
Directed by Peter Konowalik, and this is his Lace Market Theatre directorial debut. Not only is his choice of cast absolutely spot on, but it's the little things that you notice that make this play such a joy for people like me to watch. The 1980's toys, annual and Radio Times from the period all adhered to.
The brilliant set is designed by Emma Pegg, and again the little things in this set are so well sourced. It's also Emma who made the incredible puppets that Bernard uses in his puppet show. It is not just a puppet show though because it has scenery, props as well as a working curtain for the scene changes.
Lighting is by David Billen and he creates that "midnight feel",as well as the various time periods throughout the play, making us feel as if we were in the early hours of the morning or late evening over the few days the play covers.
Sound by Simon Carter, not only gets us feeling festive with a nice jazzy Christmas soundtrack, but also with the well placed and timed effects.
There are so many props in this production, as mentioned previously, which I am sure gave Kate Sassi, at times, a headache to source everything we saw on stage.
As well as being a brilliantly funny play, acknowledged with waves of laughter by the audience, it's also nice to see a festive offering that shows the real side of Christmas; let's face it, it can be a stress fest, and that is where much of our own Christmas comedy comes from, maybe in hindsight. But isn't it delicious fun to see this occurring in a household that we are on the outside looking in?
Like most of the productions that the Lace Market Theatre have put on this season, this one is completely sold out, so the only chance you have of getting to see this festive filled fun farce is to check for any cancellations at the Box Office, and have your name added to the cancellations list.
A wonderful closure to a successful year at the Lace Market Theatre, and I know that next year is also brimming with some excellent productions.
Read the original article here.
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