Relatively Speaking (Tour)

[David J]

It wasn't that long ago when sitting through How the Other Half Loves I kept wondering 'Alan Ayckbourn is a great comedy writer isn't he?'

This is meant to be one of his best and I wholeheartedly agree

The characters are so well written and I kept admiring how well he builds up the comedy (and potential tragedy)

Lindsey Campbell and Antony Eden are so lovable but gradually the storm clouds began to come in

Then comes Robert Powell and Liza Goddard and their comic timing is spot on as the misunderstandings pile high

[meister]

On the contrary, I thought it was slow to get going, soporific and rather 'televisual'.   It was also very much of it's time and the dated references just added to the remoteness of the whole contrived situation portrayed. Avoid!

[mallardo]

I'm not a big Ayckbourn fan but his early plays are his best and this one - his first big hit, I believe - is one of his funniest. The photos I've seen make me think this is the same production I saw a couple of years ago with a different cast - which I thoroughly enjoyed.

And, btw, it's ridiculous to call a play "dated" because it sticks to the time period in which it was written, in this case the 60s. There's nothing dated about the play's attitudes (such as they are) or about its elegantly constructed mistaken identity plot. Nothing at all.