More trouble at the Mill

Three bedrooms, four couples, a recipe for Ayckbourn farce

What you get from Alan Ayckbourn is comedy, often riotous and mostly about people in dysfunctional marriages who can’t live together. The trouble is that they can’t live apart either and that gives Alan Ayckbourn his situations.

Bedroom Farce is about one night in the lives of four couples set in three different bedrooms, carefully fitted onto the Mill stage. As the lights faded down on one bedroom scene, they lit up on another, leaving the actors on the previous set, in darkness. Somehow Graham Weymouth’s lighting design worked, and we were immediately transported to the appropriate bedroom. And back and forwards as the play dictated.

Malcolm and Kate are having a party. Antony Eden as Malcolm played a jumpy, nervous husband and Riannon Handy as Kate, spent much of her time either on or in the bed with various men. Jan and Nick are invited to the party, but Nick can’t go as he has a painful back, so Damien Matthews spent the whole of the play, start to finish, in bed, groaning and moaning in agony. He did it very well though.

So, Georgia Burnell as Jan hops off to the party on her own and gets tangled up with the neurotic Trevor, played nervously but skilfully by Ben Porter. Trevor’s partner, the even more neurotic Susannah, turns up to fight and cause mayhem with Trevor. Allie Croker was impressive as the wild, scatty Sussanah. Jan then gets involved with Trevor who, it turns out is her ex.

Hang on though, we haven’t covered Trevor’s parents yet, who are in their bedroom after a disastrous night at a bad restaurant that has left them desperately eating pilchards on toast in bed. Stuart Fox did well as the urbane Ernest and Julia Hills played his wife with lots of funny lines, well delivered. These two have a shock coming when Trevor’s distraught wife Susannah arrives to… but let’s not get into that as it’s all too complicated. As is Trevor turning up at Nick’s place after midnight. If all this sounds scatty, crazy and very funny to watch, well yes, it was.

Good lighting on the three-bedroom locations ensured continuous action and Robin Herford’s direction kept the pace flowing throughout. With so much going on in the three bedroom locations it all became confusing at times and even threatened to tip over into chaos occasionally. Good ensemble acting ensured that it never did.

DEREK ANSELL