Review: Aykbourn comedy is richly spiced with jokes but lacks a little something

Farcicals sees Alan Aykbourn having fun. The tone is light, the scene bucolic, the gender stereotypes all nicely in place. It’s all as comfy as the garden centre furniture around which these neighbourly couples gather to eat and drink on two summer’s days. But of course, things aren’t quite as cosy as they seem.

It’s all the fault of that old snake in the grass, sex. Lottie (Sarah Stanley) is worried that she is just too frumpy for her handsome husband Teddy (sharply played by understudy Peter Halpin).

So her smarter friend Penny (Elizabeth Boag) transforms her into sexy, foreign Chloe, and stands back to watch. But though the dress and the trousers come off as they might, nothing really disturbs this little Eden.

Then in The Kidderminster Affair, we find that Penny and Teddy have been having it off together and Lottie is suspicious. Penny’s hapless husband Reggie (Kim Wall) tries to keep order as they gather around the barbecue, but of course he only makes matters worse. At last the women settle the matter with a good old food fight. Once done the play screeches to a halt and, apart from a couple of ruined dresses, they all leave the stage much as before.

All the hallmarks of the genre are here in this duo of plays, delivered by an expert cast and a master playwright. Though impeccable in its presentation, and richly spiced with jokes, it left me wanting just a bit more mustard on my burger.

Nick Le Mesurier