Review: RELATIVELY SPEAKING, Malvern Theatres - Tour

Photo credit: Tristram Kenton

Alan Ayckbourn’s debut play was written in 1965 but its hilarious content and farcical misunderstandings remain as good today as they were then.

Greg and Ginny met only a month ago, but Greg has decided that this is the girl for him. When Ginny tells him that she is going to visit her parents, he decides that this is the moment he should ask her father for permission to marry his daughter. After discovering a scribbled address at her flat, Greg makes the irrational decision to follow her to Buckinghamshire, where he meets Philip and Sheila enjoying a quiet Sunday morning breakfast in their beautiful garden. 

The only problem is that they’re not actually Ginny’s parents….only it takes a while for this minor detail to come to light.

Antony Eden plays Greg, the hapless romantic who, whilst a little jealous (which is actually fairly justified, we discover), is genuinely trying to do the right thing by Ginny. It’s a brilliantly convincing and focused performance. Olivia Le Anderson is Ginny, played as a strong feminine character who is enjoying her life the only way she knows how, whilst trying to find happiness and not actually hurt anyone in the process.

Liza Goddard as Sheila is perfectly naïve. That is until the penny drops and we see that she’s not quite as easily dissuaded as at first it may have seemed. Completing the cast is Steven Pacey as Philip. A brilliantly frustrating performance as firstly the sexist husband and boss, who sees both his wife and his secretary as there for his needs only, then as the unjustifiably jealous husband and lover who wants everything his way or not at all, and then as the husband who realises that he might not actually have a bad life after all.

With direction by Robin Herford on what can only be described as the most beautifully crafted, yet hefty set design by Peter McKintosh (there is the most incredible set change between London flat and countryside home), the production is pleasing both aesthetically and for the soul.

A perfect evening of watching someone else’s life play out and cringing at the mess they’ve made.

A fantastically entertaining, hilariously funny, Ayckbourn classic!

***** Five stars

Reviewed by: Rachel Louise Martin

Relatively Speaking plays at Malvern Theatres until 11 March before continuing its tour.