 |
| Photo Credit:Winnipesaukee Playhouse |
Table Manners, by Alan
Ayckbourn, is the first in a trilogy of plays entitled The Norman Conquests. The play takes place in a country house in
West Sussex, England where three grown-up siblings and their significant others
all end up under the same roof. This is no ordinary weekend holiday as strong personalities,
long-time rivalries and romantic entanglements converge and quickly boil over.
Directed
by Neil Pankhurst, this fantastic six actor cast brings to life this witty and highly
entertaining British comedy. The full play takes place in a comfortable dining
room, designed by Meredith Brown. Once it began it didn’t take long before the
audience was fully engrossed and laughing; which they continued to do for the
next two hours.
Rebecca
Tucker (Annie) and Molly Parker Myers (Sarah) wonderfully portrayed their
sister-in-law characters. Their opposing views, mannerisms, and the ways that they
believe flowers and place settings should be arranged make for great first
scene. It is clear within the first few minutes who prefers to always be in
control and have things done her way regardless of whose house she is in. When
the other characters arrive into the scene tensions escalate to the point where
by intermission, more than one character has become unhinged. Tom (Jason
Plourde) is the rather in-different friend of Annie, who is constantly trying
to figure out if he has interest in her and if so why won’t he make a move. Jason
Plourde is pleasantly charming as the only character who seems to stay relaxed
during the play; with the exception of one momentary misunderstanding. Richard
Brundage superbly portrays Annie’s brother & Sarah’s husband Reg. Reg is a
very relatable character in that he is just trying to make it through the
weekend without too much family drama. Norman, incredibly played by Nicholas
Wilder, often finds himself in the middle of the dysfunctional drama and
rightly so; though he does feign his innocence in the thick of it. Suzanne
Kimball who splendidly plays his wife Ruth, sister to Annie and Reg, joins in
the weekend of family disorder and like Annie, knocks heads with Sarah most of
the time.
As
the chaos continues throughout the play the audience gets a clear understanding
of why the trilogy is called The Norman
Conquests. And if you want to know why you’ll just have to head over to the
Winnipesaukee Playhouse sometime before July 25th to find out. It
would be great to see this trilogy of amusing plays about family pandemonium produced
at the Winnipesaukee playhouse in the coming years especially if this same group
of talented actors reprised their roles.
For
additional information and tickets to Table
Manners visit winnipesaukeeplayhouse.org
No comments:
Post a Comment