Three bedrooms and eight people. The maths suggest fireworks and, of course, that’s what we get from prolific playwright Alan Ayckbourn. Amazingly he’s written over seventy plays and this is one of his most successful.
Young couple Kate and Malcolm are having a housewarming party downstairs. Trevor has turned up, hoping that his wife, Susannah, hasn’t. But, you’ve guessed it, she has. Jan, Trevor’s ex, now married to Jan, is there too. Meanwhile her husband writes in bed at home with a bad back.
Complicated? Now throw in Trevor’s parents, Ernest and Delia, staying and bickering quietly at home but providing shelter from the storm as required.
This is true Ayckbourn territory; domestic non bliss, and added with that, the cast excel at with perfect timing.
Sure, there are no wrecks and nobody drowned (see Stanley Holloway) but it comes close.
George Gent and Joanna Bowman as the parents provide a perfect foil to the younger folk and their dramas, quietly providing many laughs.
We’ll soon be overwhelmed by the panto season, so here’s your chance to get some normal entertainment before the thigh slapping begins.
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Reviewer: Philip Horton
Bedroom Farce by Alan Ayckbourn is directed by Ann Ellison, at The Mission Theatre in Bath.
The show is appearing at the Mission Theatre between Tuesday 11th December – Saturday 15th at 7.30pm, with a matinee at 2pm on Saturday 15th December.