Alphabetical Order

Synopsis

A provincial newspaper office in the 1970s - and another day of chaos in the cuttings library... files all over the floor, phones left ringing, cabinets overflowing. And, when they finally arrive, the lives of the journalists are as messy as everything else. Into this bedlam steps Lesley, who has a passion for organisation. When the paper is threatened with closure a battle between order and pandemonium ensues!

Our Review:

22 April 2009

Michael Frayn’s 1975 comedy Alphabetical Order is set in the cuttings library of a provincial newspaper where disorder reigns. A new girl arrives to tidy things up, but things fall apart anyway until, in a storm of fluttering cuttings and total chaos, a bolt from the blue provides a reality check.

The story of the newspaper is a metaphor of human conduct: the central character, the bohemian librarian Lucy, breezily played by Imogen Stubbs, is assailed by requests – for quotations as well as domestic favours. She’s coming to a crisis point in her relationship with the chaotic leader writer John (Jonathan Guy Lewis) and tolerates the semi-adulterous backchat of newshound Wally (Michael Garner).

Her new assistant, Lesley (Chloe Newsome), is cheerily inducted in the ways of the office by the ancient messenger Geoffrey (Ian Talbot) and a fussing features editor, Nora (Penelope Beaumont, replacing the injured Annette Badland at short not...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

David Baxter - 13 May 2009:

During the first half of the 1980s I worked in national newspapers so a revival of Michael Frayn's play (set in 1975) was of great interest. Although the characterisations were recognisable and Gawn Grainger's dark green jacket was horribly familiar, the first half was no more than lukewarm comedy, notable mainly for Imogen Stubb's homage to the period as she tried to replicate Felicity Kendall's winsome Barbara Good. After the interval the play, and the set, are transformed and Frayn treats the decline of the paper as an allegory for Britain in the 70s. Chloe Newsome's impressively humourless Lesley could be seen as a precursor of a Thatcherite as she attempts to impose order on the chaos (or a Bert Hardy for those who remember his impact on Fleet Street). As someone who shares Lesley's obsession for tidiness and order I found her more sympathetic than probably intended and certainly shared her response to the mess created by her colleagues - my sympathies to the stage crew who have to tidy that up eight times a week....

Read more and add your own review

Related Whatsonstage.com Articles

Review Round-up: Order Restored at Hampstead More»