The title pun of How the Other Half Loves, closing at the Ivoryton Playhouse on May 1, pokes fun at adultery in general and the class system in particular. This 1969 comedy is vintage Ayckbourn with spiraling lies, compromising situations and comeuppances barely avoided, but it also offers some thoughtful assessments about why people are so disastrously susceptible to infidelity.
In the madcap world of How the Other Half Loves,
Bob Phillips (Nick Stevenson) is having an affair with Fiona (Jacqui Hubbard). When it looks like Bob's wife (Beverley Taylor), and Fiona's husband (
Bill Kux*) are about to put two and two together, the guilty lovers use a third, unsuspecting couple (B. Brian Argotsinger* & Al
Anna Wilson*) as their alibi. The ensuing action leads to a string of misunderstandings with hilarious consequences.
What sets How the Other Half Loves apart from other farces is its unusual set: two living rooms in separate houses overlap on stage, allowing the audience to see and hear what's happening miles apart and at different points in time-including the frantically hilarious scene when we witness the hapless third couple as Thursday night dinner guests in one home and Friday night dinner guests in the other-with all of the action occurring on stage simultaneously.
"[The idea] came about when I was living in one of those soulless blocks of flats, identical boxes piled one on top of the other," explained Ayckbourn. "One or two friends lived in similar segments of this concrete honeycomb, and from time to time we visited one another. It became, I found, increasingly difficult purely because of the same-ness of the rooms and consequently identical furnishing arrangements, to remember whether you were in their house or your own. Particularly late at night, with the lights dimmed, mellowed with food and drink, you could have witnessed assorted couples, looking clandestinely at their watches, wishing the others would go home so they could go to bed. Each day, each of us, occupied more or less identical areas, trod the same well worn paths from kitchen to dining table, table to chair, chair to bed. It was a small step mentally, to superimpose one flat on another, emphasize the differences in the couples as they wove in and out of each other, pursuing their separate pleasures and traumas."
Sir
Alan Ayckbourn is the author of over 73 plays such as Absurd Person Singular, Bedroom Farce, Just Between Ourselves, Otherwise Engaged, A Chorus of Disapproval, and Woman in Mind. His plays have been translated into 35 languages and won numerous national and international awards including the 2009 Tony for Best Revival of a Play for The Norman Conquests. He is the long serving Artistic Director of the
Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all of his plays have premiered before moving to the West End or Broadway.
How the Other Half Loves is directed by Larry Thelen who was last here for Driving Miss Daisy. Set Design is by
Tony Andrea; Lighting Design by Doug Harry; Costume Design is by LisaMarie Harry;
How the Other Half Loves opens on April 13th and runs thru May 1st for 3 weeks. Performance times are Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Evening performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm. Tickets are $40 for adults, $35 for seniors, $20 for students and $15 for children and are available by calling
The Playhouse box office at 860-767-7318 or by visiting our website at
www.ivorytonplayhouse.org (Group rates are available by calling the box office for information.)
The Playhouse is located at 103 Main Street in Ivoryton.
