Stuff in the Attic (Ipswich)

Brothers, notoriously, often feud. Such sibling shenanigans have burst out over the millennia in stories – mythical, historical, literary and dramatic – which are usually tragic rather than comic. Now meet Dick and Julian in Pat Whymark’s take on the theme.

Stuff in the Attic is quite literally what has been brought down to Dick’s parlour. His dead father’s coffin is also there and various family members (most of whom haven’t been to visit for decades) and friends are expected to attend the wake. Just arrived is his elder brother Julian, a man who apparently has it all – a high-powered, high-salaried (and bonus-strewn) job, a trophy wife, a mansion and a son to inherit.

Dick, on the other hand, has had to give up what career he had – as well as any chance of marriage – to be his father’s carer. Decades of bitterness start to seep out as Dick’s resentment at always having to play second fiddle to his brother comes to the surface. Julian, it would appear from the flash-back sequences (childhood, teenage and so on), has been greedy as well as selfish all his life.

Moments of pure farce alternate with real conflict, with the audience’s sympathy predominantly going to Dick as he reveals just how ghastly and ultimately traumatic his life with a Parkinson’s Disease-afflicted parent has been. Julian has, from time to time, thrown money at the problem – from a safe distance. With that distance now eroded, his weaknesses come to the fore as the battle of words turns into physical conflict.

I’m not sure why Whymark hasn’t given her characters different Christian names to those of the actors – Julian Harries and Richard Mainwaring – and, enjoyable as her musical interludes are to listen to, they don’t really add anything to the story (other than giving the actors time to change costumes). Both Harries and Mainwaring revel in their contrasted roles but failed to convince me that the ending as played is the right conclusion.