Henceforward

Synopsis

Set sometime quite soon and in a fortified, steel-shuttered, slovenly flat in a no-go area of North London where punk things violently rule the deserted streets. Lonely composer Jerome sits surrounded by sophisticated high-tech, audio-visual equipment with only a robot nanny, NAN 300F for company - and she is somewhat on the blink. Jerome desperately wants to get his teenage daughter back and enlists the services of Zoe, an out-of-work actress for a cunning plan he's evolved to impress his estranged wife, Corinna, and a wired-for-sound Child Welfare Officer. When things don't work out with Zoe, Jerome has to improvise and its amazing what can be done with some new microchips and a screwdriver...!

Our Review:

13 February 2006

In Alan Ayckbourn’s prescient vision of the future in his 1987 play, Henceforward, major technological developments in telecommunications and robotics are accompanied by a breakdown of society with marauding girl gangs and creative types who relate to emotion only through the medium of technology.

At Derby Playhouse Diego Pitarch triumphantly confronts any design issues by creating what he calls “a retrospective future”. The apartment set resembles an old-fashioned library, with its balcony shelves and steep ladders. In place of the orderly clutter of books are radios, speakers, tape recorders and so forth, working and non-working. Television screens all over the stage and auditorium carry answerphone messages as well as images from outside. Pitarch’s designs, and the similarly creative work of Kelvin Towse (sound) and Kit Lane (video), give Karl Wallace’s production every chance of convincing.

Yet it does so only intermittently. To an extent...

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Latest User Review

82.151.251.105) - 15 February 2006:

Great night out, v funny. Particularly liked Tom Godwin's portrayal of an officious child safety worker. V funny even if you don't like Ayckbourn and extremely funny if you do. ...

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