BWW Reviews: Alan Ayckbourn's Life of Riley Makes US Premiere @ Old Globe
by Don Grigware
- May 16, 2011
UK playwright Alan Ayckbourn is revered internationally as a virtuoso at penning highly comedic plays. Ayckbourn, like Neil Simon, writes funny one-liners and creates very humorous characters, but uniquely manages to surprise his fans each and every time with a new and compelling artifice. In his brilliant Absurd Person Singular, for example, three couples spend three different Christmas Eves together over the course of a few years. The Norman Conquests is a trilogy wherein each play has the same time span and series of events, but in each one we see things from a different perspective. Table Manners is in the kitchen, Living Together in the living room and Round and Round the Garden speaks for itself. Now in Life of Riley, receiving its US premiere at the White Theatre of San Diego's Old Globe, the dying man everyone is going out of their way to accommodate is never seen, but his presence is felt throughout. Riley is a dramedy with less physical comedy than other Ayckbourn pieces. Here three couples struggle to find a sense of peace and happiness outside and within the confines of their failing marriages. The action takes place outdoors in four different garden patios. It boasts a splendid cast, with superior direction from Richard Seer, and succeeds quite admirably as engrossing and entertaining fare.
