Table Manners - A Play

by Alan Ayckbourn

In this play, Annie has arranged to spend an illicit weekend with her sister Ruth's husband Norman, and for this reason, suitably disguised, has asked her elder brother Reg and his wife Sarah to look after their widowed mother and the house. As it happens the seduction, thought or planned, by each of the six characters never takes place either. Table Manners is part of The Norman Conquests trilogy.

Genres: Plays, Drama, British Literature, Theatre

66 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Sir 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.

Reviews

[Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another strangely uplifting, hilarious live production. Highly recommended.

[Anton Segers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hoewel het hier om een komedie gaat en je met humor geëntertaind wordt, is het mensbeeld van Ayckbourn erg somber. Met de jaren ben ik meer en meer geneigd om hem gelijk te geven: niet erg anders dan bij Tsjechov zijn mensen gefrustreerd maar doen ze er niks aan, integendeel, ze blijven in dezelfde val lopen en hun toekomstige ellende in de liefde bestendigen.
Ayckbourn toont het in een wrange lachspiegel, erg trefzeker.

[Brian McCann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, well-written farce. Saw a wonderful production of it in 2009 with Uncle Richard.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This play is humor at its finest. I can't wait to read the other two plays that make up The Norman Conquests.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of the Norman Conquests trilogy, which are three overlapping plays with the same six characters. Two are married couples (mostly unhappily so, in different ways, but not entirely) and the third a pair who haven't found the ability to admit that they want to be together. One member of each couple are the children of a declining mother who must be taken care of (but she's upstairs and never appears).

The genius of this sequence is that each play stands alone, but each is set in a different location (the dining room here, in the others the living room and the yard) and the events are happening contiguously as the characters move from space to space. I liked this much less than the other two, but it's my wife's favorite. It does leave me wondering if the plays work as well on their own or if a full appreciation requires experiencing all three.

The characters are interesting if flawed, and it would be fun to play any of them on stage. I found the men a little more distinct. The motivating factor is that Annie, who takes primary care of her difficult mother has grown tired of waiting for veterinarian Tom to make a move and has instead agreed to go off for a weekend (in the sad location of East Grinstead) with her philandering brother-in-law Norman, who will try to put the moves on all three women (including his own long-suffering wife) over the course of the weekend. The vibe is more swinging seventies than today, but I don't think the characters are completely unfamiliar to modern eyes. In this work, the hijinks culminate in an awkward breakfast and a dinner party made somewhat pathetic by the lack of real food on hand.

It would take good acting and directing choices to really make this shine, but Ayckbourn really should be produced more often in an American theater that is always searching for worthwhile comedies.

[Norma · Rating 4 out of 5]

( Format : Audiobook )
"A giggalo trapped in a haystack"
By
Recorded live before an audience, this is an improbable but very funny play set in a family home revealing what happens when the daughter of the family, overworked and overlooked, decided not to go on an illicit weekend away with her fun loving, romantically inclined brother in law after all. The actors, including Martin Jarvis as Norman, play their parts to perfection.

An easy, fun listen. First in the Norman Conquest trilogy.

[Sophie Bloor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witty but I wouldn’t say it needs a trilogy

[Wendy Morton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing,if a bit dated, comedy. If handled well could entertain the audience nicely.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing play that forms part of the Norman Conquests trilogy.

[Cara Patel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny, and I can't wait to act it. I'm not sure I like how it ended, but I guess we came full circle. That may be biased because I'm playing Annie.