Review: TIME OF MY LIFE, Brockley Jack Theatre, April 14 2016

It's the 80s and "Middle Class Problems" are not yet a thing, though middle-class problems certainly exist and provide the engine for Alan Ayckbourn's 1992 work, Time Of My Life (continuing at the Brockley Jack Theatre until 30 April).

It's Laura's 54th birthday, so a party is held at the family's favourite Italian restaurant. Laura is not short of an opinion or two, so we cringe as she eviscerates her elder son, Glyn, his wife Stephanie and her younger son Adam's new girlfriend, Maureen (though she indulges Adam's doomed artistic ventures unfailingly) . But Laura isn't quite the straight-talking Yorkshirewoman her husband Gerry always believed her to be, and when secrets are revealed after a glass or two too many, their comfortable world begins to disintegrate.

Ayckbourn has a lot of fun with time in this comedy - I'm sure he and film director Christopher Nolan would have had an interesting exchange on narrative structures had they met. Whilst the disastrous birthday party provides the plot's central axis, Glyn and Stephanie's story is told by flashing forwards in time while Adam and Maureen's tale is told in flashback. Ayckbourn's technical skill, and some very smart direction from David Lucas, see to it that we never lose track of where we are in the family travails.

Lucas is rewarded with excellent performances from the ensemble cast. Hilary Derrett preens and scowls, dropping her acidic asides like Butterflies' Wendy Craig transformed from twee to malevolent. She gets strong support, particularly from Lauren Scott-Berry, who could easily make Maureen a caricature of working class fumbling in the middle class milieu, but doesn't, giving us a sweet kid to empathise with amongst the fools and monsters. Giving a tremendous turn as a range of outrageous Italian waiters is Joey Bartram, who comes close to stealing the show with his hilarious schtick and latin smouldering.

Rare Insight Productions have revived their 2015 Tabard show, retaining all its slick theatricality and sure-footed navigation of some pretty tricky source material. If it's perhaps a little too neat and pleased with itself at times, well, that's Ayckbourn, and a price worth paying for his barbed comedy and insights into the lives of those we are always told decide British General Elections, but whom we seldom see in real life - at least when not behind the wheel of a Range Rover! And, at £14 for a seat, this is ridiculously good value for a night out, especially when set against West End prices. Take a trip to South East London and see for yourself.

Photo Paul H. Lunnon.