Russel Turner and Jo Davis – photo supplied

 

Relatively Speaking by Alan Ayckbourn at the Maddermarket

If you’re fed up with this dank, dark February weather, the Maddermarket promises to transport you to a sun soaked summer, a dappled garden, and some serious laughter!
Alan Ayckbourn’s hilarious 1963 comedy of mistaken identity and thwarted love is dragged kicking and screaming into the post-Falklands, yuppie, Thatcherite 1980’s by director Jo Eyde.
Norfolk Arts Theatre Award nominee Jo Edye, is renowned for staging shows in outdoor spaces and Dragon Hall where the director has to pretty much do everything. “The last few years I have staged everything I’ve done in the round at Dragon Hall, It couldn’t be more different! The space, the facilities, the proscenium stage, all very different challenges. I’ve designed the set to make the performance area very small and tried to concentrate the action at the front of the stage, as I really like the audience to be as close as possible. Working with the team at the Maddermarket has been interesting, coming from a background where the director does EVERYTHING, to one where so many aspects of the production are taken care of. Being a control freak means it’s been difficult but handing over some of the jobs I hate has been great.”

The play follows ex-hippy businessman Philip and his wife Sheila who live a bucolic idyll in their home in a beautiful country cottage, deep in the heart of the English countryside. But one ordinary, sun-drenched summer morning their normal routine is drastically disrupted by the arrival of a young couple from the City. The intruders bring uncomfortable truths which threaten to reveal Philip and Sheila’s secret other lives. But in the crazy world of these two couples, where do the lies stop and the truths begin?
Playing the younger roles are Rohan Gotobed, who portrayed eleven-year-old Sirius Black in Harry Potter, and Teresa Baron, both students at UEA. Russel Turner, who played the leading role in Richard III will be joined on stage by Jo Davis, another Crude Apache regular.
Working with such a talented cast in the height of Winter has made turning out to rehearsals worthwhile for Jo, “It’s a freezing cold, grey February and this play is set in a beautiful garden at the height of an English Summer – escape the cold and grey and I promise you will be transported to a summer idyll and will spend 2 hours basking in the summer sun and laughing your socks off.”
Ayckbourns first major success, Relatively Speaking is a brilliantly funny, laugh-out-loud comedy that hides a dark, dark heart.

Listing:

Relatively Speaking by Alan Ayckbourn
Friday 16th – Saturday 24th February at 7.30 pm, matinees on Saturdays at 2:30 pm
Madders Monday – all tickets £10
Box Office 01603 620917
www.maddermarket.co.uk