UK Theatre Network

It’s becoming something of a tradition for The Library Theatre to end their season with an Alan Ayckbourn comedy, and this is one of his best, a gentle farce of mistaken identities and sexual misdemeanours dating from the mid 1960s.

With its finger on the pulse of the decade’s changing mores and loosening morals, the opening scene shows us Ginny’s classic single-girl flat in swinging London, complete with psychedelic colour scheme, flimsy white furniture, and a narrow bed occupied by her latest lover, Greg.  While Greg himself has only just started to swing, so to speak, Ginny is practised in promiscuity and is still clearing up the detritus, both physical and emotional, from several past affairs.  But phantom phone calls, mysterious bouquets and an inexplicable pair of slippers lead Greg to wonder whether these boyfriends really are exes, so he decides to stalk Ginny down to the country when she goes to visit her parents for the day.

Later, somewhere in the Home Counties, the rakish Philip is trying to convince his long-suffering wife Sheila that a forthcoming trip to Europe is purely for business purposes and certainly not for pleasure, when a strange young man appears on their patio.  And because by 1965 formal introductions have gone out of the window, Greg (for it is he) assumes these are his future in-laws, Sheila thinks Greg is a work colleague of her husband, and Philip concludes that this must be his wife’s lover – obviously.  Then Ginny arrives, and things become even more complicated.

Ayckbourn’s plot is extremely clever in setting up confused identities and outrageous assumptions while nailing the traits and tics of the middle-classes, in this instance the ritual of Sunday lunch.  There can be a tendency for his characters and situations can seem slightly stereotypical, but in this production the design, direction and playing are filled with real life and heart. 

Simon Harrison is the gawky innocent Greg, wearing a permanent air of amiable goodwill and costumes ranging from improvised loincloth to frilly apron.  Leila Crerar invests the cynical and worldly (and beautifully dressed) Ginny with a humour and warmth that prevent her from being the super-bitch she will probably become.  And although Lucy Tregear and Malcolm Scates as Sheila and Philip at first appear prickly and unsympathetic when they sit down to their unsatisfactory breakfast, their characters soften as the morning wears on until their marriage actually seems worth caring about.

Designer Judith Croft has recreated Ginny’s bedroom as a 1960s nostalgia-fest, while the glorious sun-drenched back-garden makes you want to reach for the factor 30.  Chris Honer’s revival is the most enjoyable Ayckbourn I can ever remember seeing, ending the Library Theatre’s adventurous season on a high. 

Relatively Speaking is on until Saturday 20 June 2009

Prices: £9.80-£18.10

Eves: Mon-Thurs @ 7.30, Fri & Sat @ 8pm

Matinees: Thurs & Sat @ 3pm

Box Office: 0161 236 7110

www.librarytheatre.com