Season's Greetings (Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold)

Pic: Catherine Ashmore

Archive: This review was first published on October 9, 2013 by the Daily Post

We may have more than ten weeks to go until Christmas, but that shouldn't stop you seeing the latest play being staged by Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Mold.

Season's Greetings by prolific playwright Alan Ayckbourn takes place over the course of two and a half days, starting on Christmas Eve. The action takes place in the home of Neville and Belinda, and is firmly set in the 1980s, when the original play was written and set.

Their guests include Nev's blood-thirsty uncle Harvey; Nev's tipsy sister Phyllis and her grey husband Bernard; Belinda's sister Rachel and her new beau Clive; and Nev's dim-witted friend Eddie and his heavily pregnant wife Pattie. There's also a bunch of raucous children in evidence, but they are represented by off-stage recordings (I assume it was recordings and not actual children being denied their limelight!).

Mike Britton's impressive set shows every room of the house in which the action takes place, as well as rooms it doesn't. The centrepiece is the huge glowing Christmas tree in the hallway, and we also have a sitting room with glowing television set, and a dining room stage left. To avoid the audience missing out on what's going on in certain rooms, there are no walls, just neon-glowing partitions along the floor. Genius, and proof that the imagination fills in what the eye misses.

Season's Greetings is a play in three Acts but in two halves. Acts one and two take up a hefty 105 minutes before you get a toilet break, and the third Act wraps it all up in 45 minutes.

Act one, starting on Christmas Eve, is probably the slowest to get going, but that might just be because the audience is still feeling its way and discovering the characters. We meet them all one by one and quickly make our own judgements about them, be it the gadget-crazy boor Neville, the soused Phyllis or the terminally dull Bernard.

The whole cast gives their all in what is a highly strung production, with farce and melodrama never far from the surface. This is a comedy, but one which has at its heart a bunch of middle-class characters who are all lost or lonely in some way, usually because of a fractured or fracturing relationship. The only one not in a relationship is retired security guard Harvey, although he has his own demons, as becomes evident in Act three.

Stealing the show with her glorious portrayal of the drunken sexpot Phyllis is Charlotte Gray, a woman who can't decide whether she loves booze or blokes more. The former inevitably leads to the latter, and her inebriated attempt to woo charming writer Clive is one of the highlights of the play. Those who remember Dick Emery's character Hettie will enjoy the homage too, whether intended or not!

Other mentions to Jenny Livsey as straitened Rachel, a performance brimming with nuance, and Sarah Tansey as hostess Belinda. Sometimes the best performances are the ones that don't make an instant impact at the time, but stay with you as you drive home afterwards. Tansey's well-considered turn means Belinda is one of the realest characters in the play.

The climax of Act two (just before the interval) is a riotous conflagration of slapstick and sitcom, culminating in an eye-watering moment of awkwardness which will have you grinning with glee all the way to the bar.

Nothing in Act three can top the raucousness of that midway peak, but there's plenty to enjoy, including soap-style revelations, and one surprise rather spoiled by warning signs dotted around the theatre foyer. Suffice to say, what starts out as a chucklesome family comedy turns somewhat darker as the piece draws to a close.

Season's Greetings is set at Christmas but actually has very little to do with it, the Yuletide setting merely an excuse to get a bunch of people together and see what happens. It'll definitely make you laugh, and probably make you crave a mince pie too.

The stats

Writer: Alan Ayckbourn

Director: Tim Baker

Cast: Darren Lawrence (Neville); Sarah Tansey (Belinda); Charlotte Gray (Phyllis); Wyn Bowen Harries (Harvey); Dominic Hecht (Bernard); Jenny Livsey (Rachel); Kristian Phillips (Eddie); Katie Elin-Salt (Pattie); Rhys Wadley (Clive)

Performed at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold, October 3 to November 2, 2013. Performance reviewed: October 8, 2013.

Links

Season's Greetings on Clwyd Theatr Cymru website (retrieved Jan 12, 2015)

Season's Greetings on Alan Ayckbourn's website (retrieved Jan 12, 2015)