Absurd Person Singular

Published Monday 23 April 2007 at 13:00 by Natalie Anglesey

Christmas? Humbug! That is clearly one of the messages in Alan Ayckbourn’s caustic look at marriage during the festive season.

Ayckbourn describes this as his first off stage play, as most of the action happens elsewhere, although the audience only sees the kitchens of the three couples celebrating Christmas Eve.

Fiona Watt’s various kitchen designs pinpoint the period to the early seventies, when the play was written, but they are dominated by the foreboding shape of a giant wooden Christmas tree.

Jack Lord gives an energetic performance as the distinctly unpalatable Sydney but is in danger of it being too much of a John Cleese caricature. However he comes into his own in the last act. Nia Gwynne hits exactly the right note as Jane, his timid wife with an obsession for cleaning.

Robert Perkins makes the most of Geoffrey, the philandering architect, rounding him off as a three dimensional figure with a wicked smile which makes the women in the audience both loathe and love him. But Alison Darling has the meatiest role as Eva, the manic depressive, who is determined to commit suicide whilst the party flows around her.

One of the best performances comes from Paul McLeary, who is totally believable as Ronald, the reliable bank manager who can not cope with his alcoholic wife Marion, another good performance from Sherry Baines.

This play is a master-class in marrying text and situation and director Chris Monks directs this production extremely well.