Thurs 25th April - Sat 27th April & Tues 30th April - Sat 4th May 1991
Directed by David Hemsley-Brown
Will Greg marry Philip's wife? Or his aunt? Or his daughter? Will Ginny tour Europe with her father or her lover? And who writes to Sheila at the weekend? All will be revealed in the Bench Theatre's production of one of Alan Ayckbourn's best comedies.
Relatively Speaking was first produced at The Library Theatre, Scarborough in 1965 with its London premiere 2 years later. The play takes place during a summer weekend in the bed-sitting room of Ginny's London flat and on the garden patio of Sheila and Philip's home in Buckinghamshire of that year. Greg and Ginny are in love and plan to marry. Greg finds a strange pair of slippers under the bed and is too besotted to believe they might have been left by another man (which would also explain the bunches of flowers and boxes of sweets filling Ginny's flat). When Ginny goes off for a day in the country - supposedly to visit her parents but actually to break things off with her older married lover, Philip - Greg decides to follow her. Showing up unannounced before Ginny, Greg asks for her hand from the man he thinks is her father, while Philip mistakenly believes that the strange young man is asking permission to marry Sheila, Philip's exceedingly befuddled wife. Once Ginny arrives, she convinces Philip to play the role of her father. Meanwhile, Greg still believes that Sheila is Ginny's mother. The situation is further complicated by a series of hilarious misunderstandings until no one (including the audience) can be exactly sure who's in love with whom.
This play was staged at Havant Arts Centre, East Street Havant - Bench Theatre's home since 1977. An additional performance (undocumented) was also given at Botley Park Hotel, Botley, Southampton.
Greg | Alan Jenkins |
Ginny | Lisa Burrows |
Sheila | Jane Hemsley-Brown |
Phillip | Peter le Feuvre |
Director | David Hemsley-Brown |
Stage Manager | Aislinn D'Souza |
Assistant Stage Manager | Rob Finn |
Lighting Design | Rob Finn Lorraine Wood |
Lighting Operation | Andrew Caple |
Front of House | David Hemsley-Brown |