Absent Friends

Published Monday 1 February 2010 at 11:05 by Andrew Liddle

When this play came out in 1974, perhaps for the first time we found ourselves laughing at grief and probing the very nature of this raw emotion, much of which, it would appear, is for the sake of form.

Paulina Tierney (Poppy) and Kerry Peers (Diana) in Absent Friends at Oldham Coliseum Photo: Ian Tilton

The tremendously tasteless suburban living room, only lacking a Tretchikoff or two to be truly period-authentic, provides a robust backdrop for a reunion which, in Nikolai Foster’s revival, is hysterical in every sense - achingly funny and dealing with uncontrollable frustrations.

Kerry Peers makes an admirably edgy Diana, resolutely throwing a party which no one seems to want to attend. Ostensibly, it’s for old friend Colin, played convincingly by David Crellin, who some time ago lost his fiancee, Carol, in tragic circumstances. But her husband, Paul, the serial philanderer, nicely plausible in Steven Pinder’s portrayal, needs to be publicly humiliated.

Indeed, his latest conquest, Evelyn, done as a bored, gum-chewing Cockney by Poppy Tierney, is among the guests, and the odd one out, lacking middle class reserve and pretension. Dominic Gately provides a permanent sight gag as her husband, John, as noisily hyperactive as a Count Basie drummer on speed, turning a blind eye to her affair.

Samantha Giles relishes the role of Marge, perhaps nearest to one of Ayckbourn’s stock characters, the childless woman continually fretting over spilt milk and frantically cleaning it up.

Colin eventually waltzes in, blissfully unaware of the dreadful anxiety occasioned by his coming, and as comfortably at terms with his loss as the rest feel obliged to be utterly thrown by it.