Production Review – Round And Round The Garden
By Alan Ayckbourn
Performed by Young NOMADS from the 21st to the 26th of February 2011
Directed by Wallace Wareham
Round and Round the Garden is the third play in The Norman Conquests trilogy written by Alan Ayckbourn. The plays are about the lives of the same group of characters thrown together for a weekend and all revolve round Norman a real charmer who seduces (not necessarily sexually) everybody he meets. Each play in the trilogy, the others being Table Manners and Living Together, is designed to stand alone but personally I think Round and Round the Garden is by far the best and is probably the most performed of the three.
In this play Annie looks after her aged mother, so has little social life. When brother-in-law Norman offers to take her away for a dirty weekend she jumps at the chance. Annie thinks she is going to the seaside. Norman, however, unable to book a hotel in Hastings as its summer and the place is full, plumps instead for East Grinstead! Annie’s brother Reg and his wife Sarah come to look after the house (and mother), but Annie decides not to go away with Norman after all, and all hell breaks loose with hilarious consequences. Throw into this mix a vet who ministers unnecessarily to the family cat so that he can see Annie and you have a recipe for emotional disaster and inevitable misunderstanding. The interaction between the characters represents a funny and compelling script, and convincing performances are needed from all six cast members to achieve success.
Put-upon Annie (played convincingly by) is being so unobtrusively courted by Tom, the local vet, that she hasn’t even noticed and gave us a wonderfully wimpish but likeable Tom full of nervous indecision.
Everyone knows a ‘Reg’ (Annie’s brother) who bores everyone with road directions and tales of car mishaps, ploughing on regardless of what is happening around him. Reg was brilliant. A fine performance. At first sight the pairing of Reg and Sarah (played most naturally by) seemed odd but it turned out to be a masterly piece of casting as they made a very believable couple not least when they were looking for the fuse wire – we’ve all been there!
. His Norman was wonderfully exasperating: and it was easy to like him whilst being frustrated by him. Even when his wife Ruth (played with expertise by) turns up his style isn’t cramped. Norman still contrives to cause havoc involving, finally, all three women.
The set was absolutely excellent with lots of attention to detail; the cast were well rehearsed and worked together as a team.
Reviewed by Julie Petrucci
Purchase from The Internet Theatre Bookshop
Purchase from Amazon.co.uk
To help fund the running of amdram.co.uk we are affiliated with both amazon.co.uk and The Internet Theatre Bookshop. We get a small commission for each purchase made via these links. Where possible we link to both stores so that you can choose your favourite.
Leave your Response!
You must be logged in to post a comment.