Ben Miles & Stephen Mangan
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1st Night Photos: Mangan Conquers Old Vic Norman

The critics will have their say on the Old Vic’s revival of The Norman Conquests, the first London production of Alan Ayckbourn’s comic trilogy in 34 years, on Monday (6 October 2008, previews from 11 September), but guests were invited to a special gala performance of Table Manners last night (2 October 2008) ahead of the first “Trilogy Weekend” tomorrow.

The trilogy is played out in three different areas of the house - Table Manners in the dining room, Living Together in the living room and Round and Round the Garden in the garden – with the action of each occurring simultaneously. Believing it his mission in life to make women happy by showering them with love, Norman makes the most of every opportunity to seduce his sister-in-law Annie, charm his brother-in-law Reg’s wife Sarah and woo his wife Ruth during a disastrous weekend.

Written over a week in early 1973, The Norman Conquests premiered at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre, where Ayckbourn first mounted all of his plays during his time as artistic director there. The trilogy had its London premiere in 1974 starring Tom Courtenay as Norman in a then relatively unknown ensemble that also included Michael Gambon, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Wilton and Penelope Keith.

At the Old Vic – where the auditorium has been specially reconfigured in-the-round to recreate the intimacy of the original staging of the comedies - Stephen Mangan plays Norman alongside Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes, Amanda Root, Ben Miles and Paul Ritter. The production is directed by Matthew Warchus and designed by Rob Howell.

TO SCROLL THROUGH ALL OF THE NORMAN CONQUESTS' GALA NIGHT PHOTOS,
JUST CLICK ON THE "NEXT >" LINKS BELOW THE FOLLOWING FRAME.
PHOTOS BY DAN WOOLLER FOR WHATSONSTAGE.COM.

For 1st Night Photos, our Whatsonstage.com photographer Dan Wooller was on hand for the post-show party at Vinopolis, along with The Norman Conquests company, Old Vic artistic director Kevin Spacey and other first night guests including Michelle Ryan and Imogen Lloyd Webber.

Table Manners, Living Together and Round and Round the Garden can be seen in any order. During the Old Vic run, there will be five Saturdays – starting tomorrow - when all three will be performed over one day, though in different arrangements on different dates.

- by Terri Paddock

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