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THE NORMAN CONQUESTS Table Manners Living Together Round & Round the Garden by Alan Ayckbourn 16 May to 8 June 2002 Directed by Simone de Haas Cast List Review Sex and the Married Man Alison Cotes - The Courier Mail - 4 June 2002 Who's doing what, and with which, and to whom? Well, Norman would like to be doing it with Annie, because he's definitely not doing it with his wife, Ruth, who is Annie's sister. Norman is also tempted to do it with his sister-in-law Sarah, and Tom the vet would love to do it with Annie if he could pluck up the courage to ask her, and Annie's brother Reg, who's married to Sarah, isn't doing it with anyone. Confused? You're meant to be, because this trio of plays tells the whole messy story from three different points of view, and although each play stands wittily alone, you have to see all three to find out the truth - if there is such a thing. The Norman Conquests have been around since 1974, but they wear very well indeed and are an ideal for the always-reliable Mixed Company. Never mind the plot/s, although you'll be glad to know that the evil deed isn't actually done, this being a very respectable set of plays where the fun lies in the combinations and permutations of relationships and points-of-view that in any sordid keyhole-peeping. The sixsome is the English middle class at its worst, and after you've spent five minutes in the company of Norman (Not the Conqueror), Tom (Wet Vet) and Reg (Motorway Maniac), you begin to wonder why the whole Pommy race isn't dying out, so ineffectual are they all. Not that the women are much better: Sour Sarah (because she's married to Reg), Awkward Annie (the sad spinster) and Rigid Ruth (because Norman would like to be away conquering Annie in where-else-but-Hastings?) are equally unappealing characters, and the triumph of Ayckbourn (and director Simone de Haas's cast) is to make us interested in their plight, even if we laugh at rather than sympathise with them. It's very much an ensemble production, although Norman is perforce the central character. Brian Edmonds plays him with a touch of the Richard Burtons, which works so well that you can forgive him for not being Tom Conti, who starred in the original production. The rest of the cast - Pauline Campton, Brad Ashwood, Paul Careless, Dale Murison and Sandra Harman - are all up to speed, and for a really nice night's entertainment you could do a lot worse. You'll certainly laugh a lot. |
