How The Other Half Loves by Alan Ayckbourn
How The Other Half Loves is an ingenious, funny and brilliantly crafted masterpiece, which juggles time and space
to present the lives and loves, passion and panic of three married couples in a play of love and laughter, meals
and mayhem. Like all of Ayckbourn's comedies it is about the precise interaction of sex and class in modern
English society.
Bob Phillip's liaison with his boss's wife is in danger of being discovered by their respective spouses. Each attempt
to wriggle out of suspicion by projecting their own infidelity on to a third, totally innocent, uninteresting and
unsuspecting couple in the Featherstones. The action takes place at two dinner parties given on different nights.
The single set is almost a character in itself, so important is it to the action. It represents two living-dining rooms at
once. The furniture and often the people of the two places are intermingles, most notably in the scene that closes
the first act, when one hapless couple is having Thursday night dinner with another pair and Friday night dinner
with the third.
The ensuing action leads to a string of misunderstandings and almost farcical events with hilarious consequences
in one of Alan Ayckbourn's best loved comedies. Like all first-rate comedies, the play is only funny because it
tackles serious issues. "I firmly believe that what distinguishes the good comedy or farce from the mediocre
specimen is that the former always has a kernel of reality: (Ayckbourn) is really a regional writer exploiting a
traditional metropolitan form, the farcical comedy. And into it he injects a wealth of unobtrusively accurate social
detail: but the kind that just gets mentioned in passing." - Michael Billington.
to present the lives and loves, passion and panic of three married couples in a play of love and laughter, meals
and mayhem. Like all of Ayckbourn's comedies it is about the precise interaction of sex and class in modern
English society.
Bob Phillip's liaison with his boss's wife is in danger of being discovered by their respective spouses. Each attempt
to wriggle out of suspicion by projecting their own infidelity on to a third, totally innocent, uninteresting and
unsuspecting couple in the Featherstones. The action takes place at two dinner parties given on different nights.
The single set is almost a character in itself, so important is it to the action. It represents two living-dining rooms at
once. The furniture and often the people of the two places are intermingles, most notably in the scene that closes
the first act, when one hapless couple is having Thursday night dinner with another pair and Friday night dinner
with the third.
The ensuing action leads to a string of misunderstandings and almost farcical events with hilarious consequences
in one of Alan Ayckbourn's best loved comedies. Like all first-rate comedies, the play is only funny because it
tackles serious issues. "I firmly believe that what distinguishes the good comedy or farce from the mediocre
specimen is that the former always has a kernel of reality: (Ayckbourn) is really a regional writer exploiting a
traditional metropolitan form, the farcical comedy. And into it he injects a wealth of unobtrusively accurate social
detail: but the kind that just gets mentioned in passing." - Michael Billington.
Loving Literacy - a Gala Premier
On August 15th come join the Highlands Community Players and The Highlands
Literacy Council for an exclusive Special Performance of "How the Other Half Loves."
Come join us for the pre-event hors d'oeuvres and wine, the hilarious comedy,
followed by a post-event wine event with the cast and a special drawing.
Literacy Council for an exclusive Special Performance of "How the Other Half Loves."
Come join us for the pre-event hors d'oeuvres and wine, the hilarious comedy,
followed by a post-event wine event with the cast and a special drawing.
DRAMA WITH BITE - Nobody can portray the hilarities of marital infidelity as expertly as Alan Ayckbourn and
although on the surface this appears to be a standard farce the author adds an extra dimension - a disorientation of
time and space -that furthers the comic effect... The orchestration of this play is masterly and one must congratulate
the writer for his ingenious plotting.... ****
Aline Waites - Ham & High
How The Other Half Loves, in which Ayckbourn's penchant for tricks of time and space manifests itself in two
living-room sets in one, with crossover scenes all helping to add to this comedy of crossed wires and infidelity... This
reaches its high point with two dinner parties happening simultaneously at one table, rendered with requisite
precision here. But apart from such MacGuffins, Ayckbourn is the chronicler par excellence of the minutiae of
middleclass angst, whose work is lifted beyond farce to social satire.
Mark Cook - TIME OUT
ADULTERY IS SELDOM THIS WITTY - How The Other Half Loves is a deliciously cynical portrayal of suburban life in
the late 60's, shot through with acid wit and a plot that makes a Spaghetti Junction look like a country lane. Alan
Ayckbourn has created a parallel universe in which one living room stands in for two households, two front door bells
ring at once, two wives prepare for two dinner parties at the same time, at the same table. During said dinner party
Alexander Holt's directing really comes to the fore. The criss-crossing conversations and weaving about the stage
that ensues is dazzling... .
Josephine Murray - Enfield Gazette
although on the surface this appears to be a standard farce the author adds an extra dimension - a disorientation of
time and space -that furthers the comic effect... The orchestration of this play is masterly and one must congratulate
the writer for his ingenious plotting.... ****
Aline Waites - Ham & High
How The Other Half Loves, in which Ayckbourn's penchant for tricks of time and space manifests itself in two
living-room sets in one, with crossover scenes all helping to add to this comedy of crossed wires and infidelity... This
reaches its high point with two dinner parties happening simultaneously at one table, rendered with requisite
precision here. But apart from such MacGuffins, Ayckbourn is the chronicler par excellence of the minutiae of
middleclass angst, whose work is lifted beyond farce to social satire.
Mark Cook - TIME OUT
ADULTERY IS SELDOM THIS WITTY - How The Other Half Loves is a deliciously cynical portrayal of suburban life in
the late 60's, shot through with acid wit and a plot that makes a Spaghetti Junction look like a country lane. Alan
Ayckbourn has created a parallel universe in which one living room stands in for two households, two front door bells
ring at once, two wives prepare for two dinner parties at the same time, at the same table. During said dinner party
Alexander Holt's directing really comes to the fore. The criss-crossing conversations and weaving about the stage
that ensues is dazzling... .
Josephine Murray - Enfield Gazette
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