You’re in for a treat if you take yourself to The Mill at Sonning for their crackling performance of Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy How the Other Half Loves.
The great master’s witty script is given polished treatment by the cast who will be on stage at The Mill until September 23.
It would be easy to wilt while reading the programme notes about the three couples’ complex relationships. Would we remember who was (possibly) doing what with whom? And what about the extraordinary dinner parties on different nights but simultaneous?
The programme asks: “Give up? Please don’t. Just relax and enjoy the fun.” And that’s what we did.
On the opening night last Thursday (11 th ) the cast did great and funny work with the complex interweaving of the characters’ lives and conversations.
Stuart Fox playing the delightfully dotty company boss Frank Foster raised many laughs as he tried, at an impressive pace, to stay in control and work out what was going on.
Julia Hills, as his wife Fiona, was a joy, tip toeing around trying to deflect questions about exactly what she’d been doing on Wednesday night. Thanking Frank for his gift of perfume, her line about it not really being her usual brand, but she’d wear it round the house, hit the spot for the audience.
We felt for the baby who covered himself with prunes and honey off stage in the kitchen. He was ‘created’ for us by Ruth Gibson as his mum Teresa Phillips, lurching between having power and not, and Damien Matthews as her husband Bob, who made fine work of being drunk. They were a real and recognisable bickering couple.
The dynamics of the less sophisticated couple were effective. Unfamiliar to dinner parties, Ben Porter as William Featherstone, had us crossing our legs as he squirmed, not wanting to face the embarrassment of asking where the loo was.
He was powerfully controlling of his shy and uncertain wife Mary, played by Emily Pithon. She had us inwardly cheering her small victories and urging her on. Together with the rest of the cast they created the very funny dinner table section of the play.
How the Other Half Loves, first performed about 50 years ago to great acclaim, reflects the times when women had a more defined role as a couple’s automatic breakfast server. But it is still full of relevance and good fun for today.
At The Mill it is in the experienced hands of director Robin Herford, who was associate director of Ayckbourn’s Scarborough theatre company and who was the man responsible for the West End’s hugely successful Woman in Black.
Set designer Michael Holt’s clever set showing two living rooms at once makes a big contribution.
NOTE: Image to come.
