Kineton Amateur Dramatic Society
HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES
by Alan Ayckbourn
A Review by Jennifer Downs
As I sat in the audience of Kineton Amateur Dramatic Society (KADS) play "How the Other Half Loves" by Alan Ayckbourn, I felt a sense of foreboding when a member of the company introduced the play and explained the rather remarkable set was rather confusing. However I needn't have worried. Directed ably by Deborah Deeley, this comedy is about two houses and three couples whose husbands work for the same firm. The set design by Pauline Erlanger was brilliant, two households are intermingled into one.
Fiona and Frank Foster, played by Jill Price and Jeremy Rivers-Fletcher are a successful couple with a stylish home incorporating arches and striped wallpaper, while the home of Bob (Peter Deeley) and Teresa (Sarah Knight) Phillips is dull, brown and untidy.
This action-packed production takes place over one weekend, starting at breakfast time in the Phillips' scruffy household where Teresa has suspicions about what Bob was up to the previous night. Meanwhile, at the Fosters', Fiona has forgotten her wedding anniversary, and Frank's wondering exactly where she was until the small hours.
The Featherstones, played by Mervyn Fell and Chris Povey, a blameless couple, are dragged into the proceedings to provide unwitting alibis for the others' infidelities. As the plot thickens, the lives of the three couples become inextricably tangled in a series of mind-boggling misunderstandings.
all the six actors deserve high praise but for me the scene that stands out is when the Featherstones simultaneously have dinner with both the other couples on different evenings.
Not to be forgotten are all the Society's members who worked hard behind the scenes to ensure the evening ran smoothly.
The next play KADS play "Out of Sight - Out of Murder" is on 26-28th April. I have the date in my 2012 diary already, an evening surely not to be missed.