"Table Manners"

July 23, 2015 — It's been a summer of Alan Ayckbourn plays. It wasn't planned, but I just happened to have seen two Ayckbourn plays so far and at least one more is on my schedule for this summer. The prolific British playwright has written 79 plays which have been translated into over 35 languages, are performed on stages and television throughout the world and have won countless awards.

The Winnipesaukee Playhouse presented Ayckbourn's "Table Manners," directed by Neil Pankhurst, at their theatre in Meredith, New Hampshire. A family and their spouses get together for a weekend at the home of an unmarried sister, Annie (Rebecca Tucker) who lives with their invalid mother who is never seen in the play. The fact that certain family members can't stand each other makes for fiery, and hilarious, dinner table conversation. The table manners of the title are not the sort of manners you would want to teach your children.

The loud, flamboyant, disruptive Norman, husband of one of the sisters, in an over-the-top performance by Nicholas Wilder, had a past fling with Annie. When he's unsuccessful at rekindling the romance, he tries to seduce Sarah, played by Molly Parker Myers, equally over-the-top. His pretext is to take her away from her boring life with her husband and children for a holiday, of course in separate bedrooms, separate baths, separate everything. "I'll make you happy" in his words.

Jason Plourde, Richard Brundage and Suzanne Kimball, all excellent, fill out the cast, abetted by Meredith Brown's beautifully designed set. I can't wait for the next Ayckbourn play, which will be "Relatively Speaking" at The Barnstormers. Then it will be back to the Winnipesaukee Playhouse for "Lost in Yonkers" by Neil Simon.