Bath Theatre Royal: Relatively Speaking

9:57am Monday 9th June 2008

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Alan Ayckbourn's comedy Relatively Speaking is a clever, frothy comedy set in the sixties about love, marriage and mis- understanding.

It opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1967 when the first scene of young, scantily clad lovers getting out of bed and making some candid comments about their relationship proved to be ground-breaking material for theatre. These days of course, such a situation is hardly worthy of comment. So how well has the play in its entirety stood the test of time?

Relatively Speaking

Tuesday 3 - Saturday 7 June 2008

The four strong cast consists of Greg (Robin Whiting) and Ginny (Siobhan Hewlett), the young couple planning to get married, alongside middle-aged marrieds Philip (Peter Bowles) and Sheila (Diane Fletcher). The action moves between the Ginny's London bedsit with quintessentially sixties wallpaper, a Beatles poster and the large garden of a respectable middle-class rural home.

When the naive but good-natured Greg asks Ginny to marry him, she sets off to visit her parents, she says. Greg decides it would be a good time to meet his future parents-in-law and follows after her. It turns out that he arrives first and meets up with Philip and Sheila, assuming they know who he is when in fact they have no idea at all though they are, to great comic effect, too polite to say. Later Ginny arrives as well and the misunderstandings and connections between the characters grow ever more complex.

On one level, particularly in the first half, the comedy is clever and quick but no more meaningful than a better episode of My Family. In the second half, however, Ayckbourn's talent for knitting a clever and complex plot shines through and while it occasionally borders on pure farce the play had the audience roaring with laughter.

The cast, particularly the two older actors, was very strong. The experience, talent and pure professionalism of Peter Bowles and Diane Fletcher shone through excellent timing, relaxed, assured performances.

Don't expect to be moved or enlightened by Relatively Speaking but forty years on it still offers a very engaging and entertaining evening.