A COMEDY of errors comes to the stage with this classic Alan Ayckbourn play.
Relatively Speaking tells the tale of a young man called Greg who has decided that Ginny is the girl she wants to be with. When Ginny decides to visit her parents, Greg follows her to ask them for their daughter’s hand in marriage. There’s just one problem. They are not Ginny’s parents.
The difficulty of having a show with just four actors throughout is that it can feel quite static. And the early sequences featuring a scantily clad Kara Tointon and Max Bennett do tend to drag a little. However, it becomes apparent these scenes are necessary for the comedy which follows.
The star of the show for me is the versatile actress Felicity Kendal.She has shown throughout her career a deft turn with comedy parts and there is no difference here. She plays the doting, and in many ways, perfect wife to a man having an affair.
She plays the confusion throughout the piece convincingly and the revelations at the end of the show reveal there is far more to her than meets the eye. Indeed her last line had me chuckling a lot on the way home.
The other most well known face in the show is former Eastenders actress Kara Tointon. She is sparky and duplicitous in her role as Ginny. The foursome, rounded off by Jonathan Coy’s Philip and Max Bennett’s Greg help to give the show some life.
The action picks up when the setting is moved to rural Buckinghamshire and here there are laughs aplenty from the confusion and misunderstandings that take place.
The show is set in 1965 and is authentic to the period. There are lots of funny lines and amusing situations so it’s worth checking out.
Review by Steve Mills.
Relatively Speaking will be performed until Saturday at Milton Keynes Theatre. For tickets call the box office on 0844 871 7652 or visit www.atgtickets.co.uk/miltonkeynes.