Events on a Hotel Terrace

Synopsis

From the 'Intimate Exchanges' series. Celia Teasdale doesn t have the best relationship with her husband headmaster, Toby, currently. Putting it mildly, their marriage is going through an awkward patch. Not that Celia doesn t try, God knows, she really does try. But sometimes Toby can be just impossible. So when temptation presents itself in the form of the virile, young school caretaker, Lionel Hepplewick, what is Celia to do? Resist him at all costs, of course! Put as much distance between them as possible. Perhaps a holiday by the sea with Toby to help restore the marriage? But Lionel is a man smitten by love. And a Hepplewick's passions, once aroused, knows no boundaries.

Our Review:

Anne Morley-Priestman - 13 March 2013

Mercury Theatre audiences are due to meet Celia, Toby, Lionel, Sylvie and Miles at least three times more during 2013 as Ayckbourn's Intimate Exchanges unravels two marriages, two putative love affairs and a whole raft of misunderstandings and back-tracking before their eyes. Events on a Hotel Terrace is the first of these (you'll have to track down Talking Scarlet's A Cricket Match if you want the fifth in the eight-play sequence).

Director Robin Herford knows just how to pace Ayckbourn and he is fortunate in his two players. Ruth Gibson plays fragile headmaster's wife Celia, just about at the end of her tether as far as her marriage is concerned. Gwynfor Jones is whisky-addicted Toby, who's more or less given up on running his school, never really bothered to understand his wife – let alone modern society – and just wants to be left alone.

Celia's frustrations boil over just as she's forced to make...

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