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Season's Greetings
Now we don't want to start Christmas like this, do we? Cheating at snakes and ladders, fighting over comic books, a bungled infidelity beneath the tree. Christmas has arrived in the Bunker household along with family and friends. But as the children lurk just out of sight, it's the adults who are letting the side down. I couldn't. Not in our sitting-room. Not in front of the television. Somewhere else. Presiding over the festivities are two warring uncles, one a kindly, incompetent doctor with an interminable puppet show to perform; the other a bullying retired security guard who dominates the TV, brings toy guns for his nieces and determines there's a thief in their midst. Alan Ayckbourn's masterly "Season's Greetings" offers a seriously entertaining look at the misery and high jinks of an average family Christmas. The play opens at the National Theatre, London, in December 2010. Three times I caught him at it. Ripping open presents, helping himself to the contents.
96 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1982
2 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
About the author
Alan Ayckbourn
181 books45 followersSir Alan Ayckbourn is a popular and prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their first performance. More than 40 have subsequently been produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or by the Royal Shakespeare Company since his first hit Relatively Speaking opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1967. Major successes include Absurd Person Singular (1975), The Norman Conquests trilogy (1973), Bedroom Farce (1975), Just Between Ourselves (1976), A Chorus of Disapproval (1984), Woman in Mind (1985), A Small Family Business (1987), Man Of The Moment (1988), House & Garden (1999) and Private Fears in Public Places (2004). His plays have won numerous awards, including seven London Evening Standard Awards. They have been translated into over 35 languages and are performed on stage and television throughout the world. Ten of his plays have been staged on Broadway, attracting two Tony nominations, and one Tony award.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 13, 2023
A bunch of men who don’t give a shit about their wives
January 21, 2020
Not, in spite of its title, a play to be performed at Christmas. I think this must rate as one of Ayckbourn’s bleaker comedies.
Just reviewing the characters will suggest how bleak.
The play is set on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and the morning of December 27th in Neville’s house. Neville is a retailer of electrical goods. He takes Belinda, his wife, for granted as his domestic manager.
Belinda craves her husband’s attention. While not actually unhappy, when she asks Neville for affection and loving affirmation, she is absently listened to while he tried to mend an electrical gadget. She spends much of the play trying to manage Christmas for her regular seasonal guests, and grousing about Neville’s lack of help as well as her sister-in-law’s unwanted help.
Eddie used to work for Neville and they are still friends, Eddie semi-sycophantically so. He ignores his wife, Pattie, just as Neville ignores Belinda. Pattie, who is pregnant again, appears to love Eddie, and is keen for him to get a proper job as well as pay some attention to his children. Her life at the moment does not offer her much.
Bernard is Neville’s brother-in-law, a second rate doctor. He is generally ineffectual though rather desperately uxorious. He has an obsession with his puppet theatre, but it is obvious that his Christmas performances are dreadful. His wife, Neville’s sister, Phyllis, is a lush if she’s given access to alcohol. She seems appreciative of Bernard when she remembers; otherwise, she is painfully embarrassing to him, and he, in his anxiety about her is a painful embarrassment to everyone else.
Rachel is Belinda’s sister, and seems to have difficulty forming relationships, especially sexually. She has a boyfriend, Clive, a new writer whose first book is based on his recent divorce. Rachel’s a pretty decent character, and, I think, Clive probably is as well – or would be if his divorce had not left him emotionally vulnerable to sexual impulses.
One of these impulses is directed towards Belinda and she is fully responsive – and this leads to a scene engineered beautifully to conclude Act 1 – I give nothing away.
The final weirdo in the roost is Neville’s Uncle Harvey who has been in security for many years and carries both a throwing knife and a revolver. Not actually nasty, Harvey is nevertheless prejudiced, hearty, gleeful about violence, probably paranoid as a result of a working life spent being professionally suspicious, uncontributive, and cruel (especially to Bernard). He is also a character whose life story could be a total fabrication, and his use in the play’s denouement seemed to me more deviceful than credible.
There is no doubt this is a well-worked play, providing plenty of dramatic interest both in the many areas of tension Ayckbourn explores and in the flourishes of stage business that I found, in spite of myself, laughing at. As always, Ayckbourn is aware of the pain behind the comedy, but it seems to me that this is a play in which the consciousness of pain outweighs the comic value that can be attributed to characters who are the victims of their own and other people’s weaknesses and insensitivities. I felt very uncomfortable reading it. Which probably is a compliment to Ayckbourn, though it does not mean I would want to watch this play, I’m afraid.
Just reviewing the characters will suggest how bleak.
The play is set on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and the morning of December 27th in Neville’s house. Neville is a retailer of electrical goods. He takes Belinda, his wife, for granted as his domestic manager.
Belinda craves her husband’s attention. While not actually unhappy, when she asks Neville for affection and loving affirmation, she is absently listened to while he tried to mend an electrical gadget. She spends much of the play trying to manage Christmas for her regular seasonal guests, and grousing about Neville’s lack of help as well as her sister-in-law’s unwanted help.
Eddie used to work for Neville and they are still friends, Eddie semi-sycophantically so. He ignores his wife, Pattie, just as Neville ignores Belinda. Pattie, who is pregnant again, appears to love Eddie, and is keen for him to get a proper job as well as pay some attention to his children. Her life at the moment does not offer her much.
Bernard is Neville’s brother-in-law, a second rate doctor. He is generally ineffectual though rather desperately uxorious. He has an obsession with his puppet theatre, but it is obvious that his Christmas performances are dreadful. His wife, Neville’s sister, Phyllis, is a lush if she’s given access to alcohol. She seems appreciative of Bernard when she remembers; otherwise, she is painfully embarrassing to him, and he, in his anxiety about her is a painful embarrassment to everyone else.
Rachel is Belinda’s sister, and seems to have difficulty forming relationships, especially sexually. She has a boyfriend, Clive, a new writer whose first book is based on his recent divorce. Rachel’s a pretty decent character, and, I think, Clive probably is as well – or would be if his divorce had not left him emotionally vulnerable to sexual impulses.
One of these impulses is directed towards Belinda and she is fully responsive – and this leads to a scene engineered beautifully to conclude Act 1 – I give nothing away.
The final weirdo in the roost is Neville’s Uncle Harvey who has been in security for many years and carries both a throwing knife and a revolver. Not actually nasty, Harvey is nevertheless prejudiced, hearty, gleeful about violence, probably paranoid as a result of a working life spent being professionally suspicious, uncontributive, and cruel (especially to Bernard). He is also a character whose life story could be a total fabrication, and his use in the play’s denouement seemed to me more deviceful than credible.
There is no doubt this is a well-worked play, providing plenty of dramatic interest both in the many areas of tension Ayckbourn explores and in the flourishes of stage business that I found, in spite of myself, laughing at. As always, Ayckbourn is aware of the pain behind the comedy, but it seems to me that this is a play in which the consciousness of pain outweighs the comic value that can be attributed to characters who are the victims of their own and other people’s weaknesses and insensitivities. I felt very uncomfortable reading it. Which probably is a compliment to Ayckbourn, though it does not mean I would want to watch this play, I’m afraid.
December 16, 2023
Een klassieke Ayckbourn, d.w.z. een door Tsjechov geïnspireerde droge hekeling van het egocentrisme van de mens, zijn talent om zijn medemens ongelukkig te maken, tegen de achtergrond van Kerstmis, het feest van vrede op aarde.
Het fileermes is ongenadig, enkel slaagt Ayckbourn er hier net iets minder dan in zijn meesterwerken in om deze stompzinnige mannen toch nog iets sympathieks mee te geven.
Het fileermes is ongenadig, enkel slaagt Ayckbourn er hier net iets minder dan in zijn meesterwerken in om deze stompzinnige mannen toch nog iets sympathieks mee te geven.
March 8, 2020
Season’s Greetings is a play by Alan Ayckbourn, a version of which was first staged in 1980 at the Scarborough Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round (Westwood). This review is prompted by the Faber & Faber electronic version of the playscript on Kindle. The playscript is also available from Samuel French.
You may recall this classic dialogue about an old familiar film on Christmas television: Harvey He’s dead now. That one there; Bernard Yes; Harvey And him. He’s definitely dead. He died not long ago; Bernard And her; Harvey Oh, yes, she’s dead. She’s been dead for years; Bernard Yes, I can remember her dying; Harvey I don’t know about this chap; Bernard No.
The play initiates and weaves several strands of confusion, each one adding to the sense of tension that builds up and ends in anticipated amusement for the reader (or audience). Vintage Ayckbourn.
I like the way that playscripts announce the characters, their relationships and sometimes (but not in this case) a description. There are 9 characters: 5 male and 4 female. Typical of Ayckbourn, there are also off-stage characters, named children and their friends. There is scope for a tenth character, not only unseen, but also unmentioned in the play (see alanayckbourn.net on the web). The stage directions are informative for actors, directors and designers of sets, lighting and sound.
The Faber version stops at the end of the play while the Samuel French acting edition continues with a furniture and property list with ground plans for the set in the round and from the London proscenium arch production, a lighting plot, and an effects plot. Perhaps Faber had copyright issues.
Both versions give the play’s initial first presentation as Scarborough on 25 September 1980 and both state the play “was subsequently presented at the Apollo Theatre, London, in the Greenwich Theatre production on 29 March 1982”. This is confusing, potentially wrong and reinforces West End bias. The web site clearly shows that the Scarborough production itself transferred to London’s Round House Theatre in October 1980 with the same cast. This production featured a 10th off-stage character Shirley (Harvey’s wife) and was different to that portrayed in both the Faber and Samuel French playscripts. Ayckbourn is renowned for rewriting some of his plays after reflection and he did this with Season’s Greetings, reviewing the play for its 1981 revival leading to the 1982 London run and it is this version that the playscript follows.
(I saw the play in December 1986 in the Gate Theatre, Dublin. It was thoroughly enjoyable throughout.)
Information from http://seasonsgreetings.alanayckbourn... is acknowledged with thanks.
You may recall this classic dialogue about an old familiar film on Christmas television: Harvey He’s dead now. That one there; Bernard Yes; Harvey And him. He’s definitely dead. He died not long ago; Bernard And her; Harvey Oh, yes, she’s dead. She’s been dead for years; Bernard Yes, I can remember her dying; Harvey I don’t know about this chap; Bernard No.
The play initiates and weaves several strands of confusion, each one adding to the sense of tension that builds up and ends in anticipated amusement for the reader (or audience). Vintage Ayckbourn.
I like the way that playscripts announce the characters, their relationships and sometimes (but not in this case) a description. There are 9 characters: 5 male and 4 female. Typical of Ayckbourn, there are also off-stage characters, named children and their friends. There is scope for a tenth character, not only unseen, but also unmentioned in the play (see alanayckbourn.net on the web). The stage directions are informative for actors, directors and designers of sets, lighting and sound.
The Faber version stops at the end of the play while the Samuel French acting edition continues with a furniture and property list with ground plans for the set in the round and from the London proscenium arch production, a lighting plot, and an effects plot. Perhaps Faber had copyright issues.
Both versions give the play’s initial first presentation as Scarborough on 25 September 1980 and both state the play “was subsequently presented at the Apollo Theatre, London, in the Greenwich Theatre production on 29 March 1982”. This is confusing, potentially wrong and reinforces West End bias. The web site clearly shows that the Scarborough production itself transferred to London’s Round House Theatre in October 1980 with the same cast. This production featured a 10th off-stage character Shirley (Harvey’s wife) and was different to that portrayed in both the Faber and Samuel French playscripts. Ayckbourn is renowned for rewriting some of his plays after reflection and he did this with Season’s Greetings, reviewing the play for its 1981 revival leading to the 1982 London run and it is this version that the playscript follows.
(I saw the play in December 1986 in the Gate Theatre, Dublin. It was thoroughly enjoyable throughout.)
Information from http://seasonsgreetings.alanayckbourn... is acknowledged with thanks.
March 6, 2014
Christmas eve. Blurb - A sparkling BBC Radio 4 production of Alan Ayckbourn’s festive play, starring Frances Barber, Phil Daniels, Bill Nighy, Geoffrey Palmer and John Sessions
Christmas is the season of good cheer and harmony among men, but things are not working out quite that way in the Bunker household. As a motley collection of friends and relatives fill the house with their own wishes, dreams and attitudes, the stage is set for seasonal disharmony and romantic intrigue.
It’s Christmas Eve and while Belinda is rushing around decorating the tree and seeing to all the guests and their needs, Eddie and Pattie are having a serious bust-up. Added to all of this, Bernard is conducting a chaotic rehearsal of his annual gift for the children - a puppet show of The Three Little Pigs - as his wife, Phyllis gets quietly sloshed in the kitchen on the cooking wine. Then something disastrous occurs...
February 12, 2012
At Christmas a houseful of near strangers come together, held by their points of common reference, Belinda and Neville - variously sister and brother, colleague, nephew, friend of each of the others. Children wait upstairs patiently unseen. The cast (of nine I think) snipe at each other and run through some familiar Christmas archetypes - the woman who wants to take over the kitchen, the squabbling couple, the devotee to the Christmas movie, etc. Into their midst, late on Christmas Eve, comes Clive, a near stranger to the lot of them and one who excites tensions in the house in various ways. The protrayal of Christmas as a kind of Abigail's Party-type hell is entertaining enough but underneath I am not sure there is any desperately original message for our brains to digest: Christmas can be (ironically) an unpleasant experience and people's attempts to entertain others often fail. OK then; I would bring the kids down and have some fun then!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2016
Excelent
June 23, 2016
Too much unnecessary fluff
August 20, 2022
A firm Christmas favourite. Clever, funny and classic.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews