A Chorus of Disapproval

Synopsis

One of Ayckbourn's funniest and best loved comedies, A Chorus of Disapproval centres on a diffident widower who attempts to escape from his loneliness by joining the local amateur list operatic society. By not saying 'no' to anything, be it a request to obtain confidential information from his company or an offer of illicit sex, he advances, by accident rather than design, from a one-line part to the lead. Ayckbourn's script shows us how painfully embarrassed are the British in the face of emotion and keeps us laughing in happy recognition.

‘A blissful evening.  The jokes keep coming.  Rob Brydon is magnificent.’ - The Times

‘Nigel Harman is in fine form, Ashley Jensen is beautifully caught and Rob Brydon is both funny and touching.’ - Telegraph

‘Rob Brydon is exactly the right mix of earnestness, bossiness and twilit Celtic gloom’ - Guardian

‘Rob Brydon is tremendous in this revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy. He gives a beautifully judged performance.’ - Evening Standard

‘A standout performance by Rob Brydon in his West End debut. Panache and perfect comic timing’  - Daily Express

Book your tickets now for one of Ayckbourn's most hilarious shows.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 28 September 2012

One of Alan Ayckbourn’s finest plays, paralleling the plot of The Beggar’s Opera with the romantic and commercial shenanigans within an amateur dramatic and light opera society who are putting it on, falls slightly flat in Trevor Nunn’s revival starring Rob Brydon.

Nothing much wrong with Brydon – who’s making a West End debut – as the over-weaning Welsh director Dafydd ap Llewellyn (a role originated in London by Michael Gambon at the National), but the dynamics of his relationship with the new “Macheath,” the bereaved office worker Guy Jones of Nigel Harman, are not quite right.

This is because Harman plays the Leeds refugee – the action takes place in an unspecified provincial town – as a cowed, but always plausible, Lothario, not a timid, unlikely sex god who finds himself torn between the director’s wife...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 6 December 2012:

Maybe Alan Ayckbourn saw Kiss Me Kate before writing A Chorus of Disapproval as there are huge similarities as the members of a local operatic society find parallels with the characters from A Beggars Opera. There are some blissfully funny scenes in the rehearsal room and none better than Nigel Harman's misconstrued invitation to a swingers party. However there are more occasions when it drags thanks to predicatably ponderous direction from Trevor Nunn but Ayckbourn doesn't help by inserting a tedious and superfluous sub-plot about a dodgy land deal. Most unusually it doesn't end with one of Ayckbourn's classic comic moments but just comes to an unresolved halt. I know they are playing amateur actors but some of the performances are surprisingly poor and the characters are sketchy to say the least. Almost all the best moments revolve around a tremendous comic performance by Rob Brydon as the over loquacious bearded director (wonder who he was based on) which included a brilliant extended ad lib to cover up a mistake in the first half which completely corpsed Harman. There were times when I laughed a great deal but not enough to make this a vintage Ayckbourn revival....

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