Family Album (latest Ayckbourn) - SJT, Scarborough
Sept 17, 2022 22:41:30 GMT
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Post by mkb on Sept 17, 2022 22:41:30 GMT
Unusually for an Alan Ayckbourn play, his latest, Family Album, opens on an entirely bare stage. The comings and goings of the furniture are the principal diversion of Act 1. The Stephen Joseph Theatre's main, in-the-round auditorium transforms into the living room of an upper middle-class house, somewhere "south of the river", where we meet three generations of a family over the course of two short (45-minute) halves. Scenes set in 1952, the present day, and sometime inbetween, take place, often concurrently - an Ayckbourn trademark.
The playwright has often talked about the influence of the strong women in his early life. Here he is writing a piece for four women and one man, including an interracial lesbian couple. One senses that Ayckbourn has deliberately stepped outside his comfort zone, but he has not entirely succeeded in giving full voice to these females suffering in differing ways from patriarchal oppression.
This is quite a bleak piece, yet ultimately feels somewhat inconsequential. It was as if Ayckbourn had constructed a good first half of a play, setting up a second half that he never managed to get round to writing. This is one of his weaker works, but it's quite something that, at 83, he is still delivering interesting new writing every year.
Three stars.
Act 1: 19:32-20:18
Act 2: 20:37-21.24
The playwright has often talked about the influence of the strong women in his early life. Here he is writing a piece for four women and one man, including an interracial lesbian couple. One senses that Ayckbourn has deliberately stepped outside his comfort zone, but he has not entirely succeeded in giving full voice to these females suffering in differing ways from patriarchal oppression.
This is quite a bleak piece, yet ultimately feels somewhat inconsequential. It was as if Ayckbourn had constructed a good first half of a play, setting up a second half that he never managed to get round to writing. This is one of his weaker works, but it's quite something that, at 83, he is still delivering interesting new writing every year.
Three stars.
Act 1: 19:32-20:18
Act 2: 20:37-21.24
