Confusions

The plays are alternately naturalistic, stylised and farcical, but underlying each is the problem of loneliness

The Mother Figure shows a mother unable to escape from baby talk

In The Drinking Companion an absentee husband attempts seduction without success

In Between Mouthfuls, a waiter oversees a fraught dinner encounter

A garden party gets out of hand in Gosforth's Fete, whilst A Talk in the Park is a revue style curtain call piece for the five actors

REVIEWS

"Buoyant ... sad, sharp and funny" ~ London Guardian

"Runs the gamut of comic technique from faintly pathetic situation comedy to outright farce.... Ayckbourn has demonstrated once again that even in a trivial situation he can hold the attention with his matchless ear for conversational speech, and in untrivial situations shows himself a comic writer of immortal quality" ~ London Financial Times