Love in a Maze

Synopsis

A 19th century romantic comedy. The Adoring Sir Abel Buckethorne has, since their birth, groomed his nephew and niece for marriage. They marry each other as per his wishes only to find that they aren't sure that's what they want. Following the marriage ceremony they are confronted by Lord Minever who has desires upon the new bride. His plan to annul the marriage creates havoc. Meanwhile Sir Abel's close friend Tony Nettletop comes face to face with the love of his life Lady Aurora Fullalove who twelve years previously married another leaving him distraught. Add to this Faith, the lady's maid, who has discovered her previous love, Mopus in the service of Tony Nettletop and there are plenty of revelations when they all meet in the maze.

Our Review:

12 June 2002

The 19th-century Irish playwright Dion Boucicault was hailed as 'the Irish Shakespeare'. His output was even more prolific than the Bard, and if the Watermill's choice of summer production is typical, he could spin a convoluted love plot and turn a felicitous phrase too.

The eponymous maze refers both to the complicated dilemmas of three pairs of lovers and to the maze in which they find and lose each other at the play's climax. Director Timothy Sheader has transposed the action to the Roaring Twenties. Boucicault's delightful oppositions between town and country, love and marriage and upstairs and downstairs work well in the era when society conventions were breaking down after the ravages of World War One.

Sir Abel Buckethorne (a twinkling Sam Dastor) likes nothing better than a wedding. But his desire to marry off a pair of childhood friends and reunite a couple who balked at the altar is almost thwarted by a maze of misunderstandings and the machinations of the d...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com - 11 June 2002:

The director Timothy Sheader openly admits that Love in a Maze by Dion Boucicault ‘may never become part of a regular repertoire’ but nevertheless a ‘bold attempt to discover new stories and new voices.’ All very well but does the material really warrant such an attempt? To start with, it was already a curious hybrid – a play written and performed in 1851 yet set in the late seventeenth century. By the time Boucicault came to write the play, it was already anachronistic and made no bones about its dramatic leanings on 18th century theatre. Sheader relocates his ‘flight of fancy’ to the 1920’s. Unfortunately the gay twenties facade and Noel Coward songs sit uneasily against the sturdy wit of the script. It is a great pity as the play develops with enough character to stand on its own. Despite the twenties ‘confection’ the cast perform with a vigour and vitality that the play warrants – particularly Nick Caldecott as the villainous Lord Minever, Claire Faith as Faith and Sam Dastor as befuddled Sir Abel Buckthorne who adds a classical ‘chorus’ to the proceedings. Philip Witcomb’s set makes full use of the Watermill location and does not confine itself to the theatre but, weather permitting, takes the audience on to the lawn to see the final action played out against the ‘maze’ where ‘out blurts the naked truth’ Sheader’s relocation to the twenties certainly does not help and suffocates what may be an entertaining yet low-key light drama. It should be questioned why the play, as Sheader admits, has not seen the light of day since the mid nineteenth century. David Stockton ...

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