Relatively Speaking (Ayckbourn play)

Last updated

Relatively Speaking
Written by Alan Ayckbourn
CharactersGreg
Ginny
Philip
Sheila
Date premiered1965
Original language English
SubjectLove, infidelity, misunderstandings, mistaken identity
SettingThe bed-sitting-room of Ginny's London flat and on the garden patio of Sheila and Philip's home in Buckinghamshire, 1965.
Official site
Ayckbourn chronology
Mr Whatnot
(1963)
The Sparrow
(1967)

Relatively Speaking is a 1965 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, originally titled Meet My Father, his first major success. [1]

Contents

Setting

The play by the Ljubljana City Theatre in 1969 Alan Ayckbourn, Polovicne resnice, Mestno gledalisce ljubljansko.jpg
The play by the Ljubljana City Theatre in 1969

The action of 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, outside London. The time is 1965.

Characters

Synopsis

The play opens in the flat of Greg and Ginny, a young co-habiting couple, Ginny being the more sexually experienced. 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 apartment). 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.

The next scene is on the patio at the home of Philip and his befuddled wife Sheila, whose marriage is clearly under strain. Greg shows up unannounced before Ginny, and wrongly assumes that they are her parents. Greg asks for her hand from Philip, while Philip mistakenly believes that the strange young man is asking permission to marry Sheila. 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 becomes increasingly complicated and hilarious.

Although it is basically a comedy of misunderstandings and mistaken identity, as plays of this genre go it has a very well-constructed plot, plus some developed characters and a slightly dark streak. [2]

Production history

Relatively Speaking had its world premiere in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, in 1965. The London production in 1967 at the Duke of York's Theatre was Ayckbourn's first London West End hit. It also helped to further Richard Briers' career, and featured Michael Hordern and Celia Johnson. It has since been staged a few times by professional and amateur companies, and in 2013 a revival ran for three months at Wyndham's Theatre in London, starring Felicity Kendal as Sheila.

The 40th-anniversary production was directed by Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in 2007, starring Philip York, Eileen Battye, Dominic Hecht and Katie Foster-Barnes.

The play has also been produced internationally, in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sri Lanka, in May 2007, by the British Theatre Playhouse, [3] and in November 2018 in Belgrade, Serbia. [4] In October 2020, the Fylde Coast Players were the only amateur dramatics company able to put on a performance of any production in the UK (after the first lockdown in March). Director Rosie Withers chose to put on Relatively Speaking and performed using two actual couples in order to facilitate performing on stage without breaking COVID-19 guidelines. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Ayckbourn</span> English playwright (born 1939)

Sir Alan Ayckbourn is a prolific British playwright and director. He has written and produced as of 2024, 90 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenna Russell</span> British actress

Jenna Russell is an English actress and singer. She has appeared on the stage in London in both musicals and dramas, as well as appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She performed the role of Dot in Sunday in the Park with George in the West End and on Broadway, receiving the Tony Award nomination and the 2006 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role. She has also appeared in several television series, including Born and Bred and EastEnders.

Stephen Lowe is an English playwright and director.

<i>Woman in Mind</i> 32nd play by Alan Ayckbourn

Woman in Mind (December Bee) is the 32nd play by English playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It was premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, in 1985. Despite pedestrian reviews by many critics, strong audience reaction resulted in a transfer to London's West End. The play received its London opening at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1986 where it received predominantly excellent reviews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janie Dee</span> British actress

Janie Dee is a British actress. She won the Olivier Award for Best Actress, Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Play, and in New York the Obie and Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer, for her performance as Jacie Triplethree in Alan Ayckbourn's Comic Potential.

<i>Private Fears in Public Places</i> 2004 play by Alan Ayckbourn

Private Fears in Public Places is a 2004 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. The bleakest play written by Ayckbourn for many years, it intimately follows a few days in the lives of six characters, in four tightly-interwoven stories through 54 scenes.

<i>The Revengers Comedies</i> 1989 play by Alan Ayckbourn

The Revengers' Comedies is a play by Alan Ayckbourn. Its title references that of The Revenger's Tragedy. The play is an epic piece running more than five hours and was designed to be presented in two parts. It was inspired by the playwright's love of films and references many notable movies, particularly the Alfred Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train.

Lia Williams is an English actress and director, on stage, in film and television. She has had television roles in The Crown, in May 33rd (2004) for which she was nominated for a BAFTA, and in The Missing (2016), Kiri (2016), His Dark Materials (2019–2022) and The Capture (2019–2021).

<i>Taking Steps</i> 1979 farce by Alan Ayckbourn

Taking Steps is a 1979 farce by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is set on three floors of an old and reputedly haunted house, with the stage arranged so that the stairs are flat and all three floors are on a single level.

<i>If I Were You</i> (play) 2006 play by Alan Ayckbourn

If I Were You is a 2006 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about an unhappy married couple who are given the chance to understand each other by discovering, quite literally, what they would do "if I were you," in the same manner as the novel Turnabout by Thorne Smith.

<i>Improbable Fiction</i> 2005 play by Alan Ayckbourn

Improbable Fiction is a 2005 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about a writers' circle, on the night the chairman, Arnold, seems to wander into the imaginations of the other writers.

<i>Haunting Julia</i> 1994 play by Alan Ayckbourn

Haunting Julia is a 1994 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about Julia Lukin, a nineteen-year-old brilliant musician who committed suicide twelve years earlier, who haunts the three men closest to her, through both the supernatural and in their memories. In 2008, it was presented as the first play of Things That Go Bump.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Hilary</span> British actress (1942–2008)

Jennifer Mary Hilary was a British actress of stage, film and television. Her first acclaimed stage performance was as "Milly" in Henry James' The Wings of the Dove, which marked her debut in the West End.

Derrick John Goodwin was an English theatre and television director, writer and producer.

<i>My Wonderful Day</i>

My Wonderful Day is a 2009 play by Alan Ayckbourn. It is about a nine-year-old girl, Winnie, who has an essay to write about her day, and records the shenanigans of grown-ups around her.

Stephen Joseph was an English stage director.

<i>Life of Riley</i> (play) 2010 play by Alan Ayckbourn

Life of Riley is a 2010 play by Alan Ayckbourn. It was first performed at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.

Ruth Brinkmann was the founder of Vienna's English Theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Theatre Playhouse</span>

The British Theatre Playhouse (BTP) is a professional theatrical and musical production company incorporated in Singapore in 2004. With the motto Bringing to the World the Best in British Entertainment, the BTP is internationally focused with a British connection, as well as it is a long-standing member of the Singaporean British Chamber of Commerce and the European Chamber of Commerce. In 2012, the BTP also established a UK branch office, in order to work more closely with British playwrights, writers, actors, directors, musical directors, and set and costume designers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Bell (actress)</span> English actress

Elizabeth Bell was an English stage and television actress.

References

  1. Cody, Gabrielle H., and Evert Sprinchorn, The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama: A-L - Volume 1 - 2007, page 110, "AYCKBOURN, ALAN Its appeal remains permanent, easily transcending its original time. ... It was for the Library Theatre that Ayckbourn wrote Relatively Speaking (1967), his first play to transfer to London, thus beginning a pattern of ..."
  2. Billington, Michael (20 May 2013). "Relatively Speaking – review". The Guardian .
  3. "British Theatre Playhouse - Past Productions - at BTP, we pride ourselves on high standards equivalent to London's West End and offer UK casts comprising prominent stage, television and film actors. Every one of BTP shows has featured stars from London's West End. - SISTIC". Archived from the original on 9 August 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  4. "SMEH U PUNOJ SALI Predstava "Upoznaj mog tatu" premijerno u Domu omladine". Blic.rs (in Serbian). Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  5. "Relatively Speaking" at NODA.