Bedroom Farce

Synopsis

When Malcolm and Kate threw a house-warming they had no idea how hot it would get. But then with four couples, three bedrooms, two ex-lovers and one set of parents-in-law (not to mention self assembly furniture and pilchards on toast) it was never going to go that smoothly. First performed June 1975.

Our Review:

14 July 2010

Sir Peter Hall knows a thing or two about Ayckbourn. In particular, he knows a thing or two about Bedroom Farce, having co-directed the National Theatre’s original London production with the playwright in 1977.

Now, courtesy of producer Bill Kenwright, he has revisited the work and is taking it on tour after a successful run in the West End.

As its name implies, it has moments of high comedy and plenty of bedroom action. That most of it is to do with anything other than sex is typical of Ayckbourn.

Four couples, three bedrooms, two disastrous parties and one bad back make up the components, which Ayckbourn weaves with his customary genius and dexterity to offer a painful portrait of relationships in various stages of disintegration.

Hall’s production gives us the three bedrooms square on, occasionally losing some of the complexity of the unfolding action in the process, but Peter Mumford’s lighting and the costumes of Mark Bouman and Mia Flodquist serve their...

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