1. Date 03 February 2013
Page 73
Marriage under
the microscope in
razor-sharp farce
THEATRE
T
he publicity for
Bedroom Farce, Ayckbourn, 74 this year,
Michael with its tagline has notched up at least 77
‘three bedrooms, plays – it can be difficult
Moffatt four couples and making a definitive count
one hectic night’, because there always seems
Bedroom might lead you to think that
this is a traditional farce
to be another play just being
finished or waiting to get its
Farce with semi-naked characters final title, or an early play
Gate hopping in and out of win- turning up that hasn’t been
dows. Not a bit of it; but it’s published yet. And that’s
Theatre a fast-paced, very funny not including film scripts,
Until March 30 slice of life by Alan Ayck- revues, children’s plays and
bourn, that most prolific the book and lyrics for the
and observant chronicler of Andrew Lloyd Webber
middle-class obsessions, musical Jeeves.
infidelities and phobias. Among his suburban char-
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2. Date 03 February 2013
Page 73
acters, he has treated seri- relationships is worked out
ous modern topics such as by strong characterisation,
corporate greed and drug dialogue that’s funny with-
abuse side by side with out- out straining, and painfully
rageous humour. In his 1972 recognisable situations.
play, Absurd Person Singu- Stephen Brennan, as
lar, a wife trying to commit Ernest, once again shows
suicide is totally misunder- what a consummate comic
stood and thwarted by other actor he is. He can get
guests who think she’s hav- laughs by the merest ges-
ing trouble with the fittings ture while staying strictly
in the kitchen. in character, and Lorna
Even when he seems to be Quinn and Garrett Lombard
repeating himself, his stag- are a delight as cooing love-
ing can be exhaustingly birds pushed to uncomfort-
inventive. able honesty by the
‘You can tell a lot about self-obsessed Trevor.
people by their bedrooms,’ The character of Trevor
says the middle-aged Delia is, admittedly, a problem.
(Deirdre Donnelly) to her He is so unpleasantly
husband Ernest at the begin- unaware of others that you
ning of Bedroom Farce, set wonder how women can be
in three bedrooms in differ- charmed by him, never
ent houses, all on view at mind marry him. It’s under-
the one time. It’s the behav- standable that Rory Nolan
iour of people in intimate has a problem pinning down
surroundings, of course, those contradictions.
that tells you everything.
Just to complicate matters,
there’s a lot of interference
‘You can
from the self-obsessed visi-
tors, Trevor and his wife tell a lot
Susannah, for whom life is a
non-stop round of disputes, about us
although they’re always ‘try-
ing to work something out’.
Trevor is the equivalent of
by our
a computer virus, screwing
up the works and planting
bedrooms’
ALSO PLAYING
doubts and suspicions in the
two houses he visits. The
apparently blissfully mar-
ried Kate and her DIY-
obsessed husband, Malcolm, Macbeth opened at The Mill down-to-earth characters, she’s
are made aware that they Theatre in Dundrum on Friday happy to get at chance at some-
may bore each other. The starring Hilda Fay in her first thing meatier.
other pair, he visits, Jan and Shakespearean role, as Lady In her own words: ‘I have spent
Nick, (Louis Lovett) are also Macbeth. Hilda has become well- the last 20 years in a tracksuit and
made uncomfortably aware known in recent years as Tracey in a scrunchie playing similar
of their marriage fault lines. Fair City, and she was brilliant in characters, so I’m really surprised
the hugely successful short play to be playing Lady Macbeth. My
F
or Ernest and Little Gem that toured to London challenge is to find something
Delia, life is a and New York. original I can bring to the part.’
regular drama of Having played a string of very It runs until February 9.
leaky roofs and
incompetent
workmen. Their
social life is summed up by
Delia’s assertion that they
needn’t book for a restaurant
because ‘we’re regulars, we
go there every year.’
The network of strained
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3. Date 03 February 2013
Page 73
REVEALING: Deirdre Donnelly, Aoibheann O’Hara and Stephen Brennan in Bedroom Farce
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