Everyone thinks they know Ayckbourn. He writes cosy, suburban comedies, right? In reality, his comedies have a dark heart and his darker plays always have a rich vein of humour.
Everyone knows what Christmas is supposed to be like, too. It’s Slade and jingle bells and snow and homes that look like a John Lewis advert, right?
In reality I don’t know anyone whose Christmas looks exactly like that. Whether the sprouts are too hard or auntie’s too drunk or money’s too scarce, it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one having a less-than-perfect time. Which is why Rosie DeVekey and I chose an Ayckbourn play for the Christmas slot.
I saw Season’s Greetings at the National couple of years ago – in a run so successful it was extended until March. A sell-out crowd at the Olivier laughed itself sick every night at infidelity, infertility and a near-fatal shooting. Absurd Person Singular – a play older than I am – still packs a cathartic punch with its Christmas suicide attempt that begins as tragedy and ends in farce.
Life and Beth is the latest of Ayckbourn’s Christmas plays; here at Network we are privileged to be staging the London première. It, too, has a darkness at the heart of it. Memories of three deaths – one recent, one receding and one long ago – drive the relationships in this play. But in those relationships we see our own embarrassing failures and secret hopes.
The laughter that this play provokes is, I think, fonder than in Season’s Greetings or Absurd Person Singular. Nevertheless it acts as a humane antidote to the pressure of a John Lewis advert Christmas.
This piece first appeared in the Network Theatre November Newsletter.
Tickets still available here
Life and Beth 