Review: Relatively Speaking

I’ve always been an unashamed fan of Felicity Kendal every since she sprang to prominence on the small screen as Barbara Good in the popular television adaptation of ‘The Good LIfe’.

I also secretly applauded when she won the ‘Rear of the Year’ accolade some years later, but to finally see her in a stage play last night (Bank Holiday Monday) at Milton Keynes Theatre, it simply put the icing on the cake and made me realise just what a fabulous actress she is.

Playing alongside an all-star cast of Jonathan Coy, Kara Tointon and Max Bennett in Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy farce Relatively Speaking, Kendal shone throughout in the role of Sheila, a slightly naiive rural Buckinghamshire housewife.

Relatively Speaking is just one of prolific Hampstead-born playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s many farces. He first made a name for himself back in the early 1960s with a series of plays, all of which debuted in Scarborough.

However it was in March 1967 when Relatively Speaking first hit the West End stage – almost two years after its first Yorkshire airing – and that really set him on the road to fame and fortune… plus a knighthood!

Originally penned as ‘Meet My Father’, Relatively Speaking became an instant hit with the London audiences, even though Ayckbourn had already had limited West End success with his two earlier productions – Mr Whatnot in 1964 and Standing Room Only two years later – after they too had debuted in Scarborough.

Starring the late Richard Briars in the original 1967 London production, it’s perhaps fitting that Felicity Kendal, his long-time ‘The Good Life’ co-star, is now one of the four characters in a show which will make a return to the West End at the Wyndhams Theatre on Tuesday, May 14, immediately after its week-long Milton Keynes run closes this coming Saturday.

Set in 1965, Relatively Speaking opens in a small flat which is shared by Ginny (Kara Tointon) and her latest boyfriend Greg (Max Bennett).

With secrets to hide, Ginny gets ready to catch a train on the pretext of seeing her parents, but with Greg suspicious after finding a pair of men’s size 10 slippers under their bed, the arrival of a mysterious parcel plus a series of phone calls, he also makes up his mind to visit her ‘parents’.

He has already made a proposal of marriage and finds a scribbled Buckinghamshire address on a notepad which he wrongly assumes is where her parents live.

The opening scene is well acted, the two younger characters showing great depth with Tointon – the 2010 Strictly Come Dancing winner and a former EastEnder – and Bennett (who appeared in the recent film adaptation of Anna Karenina) each getting dressed after taking a shower. Greg also appears in a naked state, his modesty comically covered by several bunches of flowers which he conveniently finds in the bath!

A huge projected London and Home Counties map brings the curtain down on the first act and while it is displayed for several minutes, the somewhat lengthy delay becomes far more understandable when it rises again to reveal the rear aspect of a lovely detached house covered in a rambling wisteria.

With Philip (Jonathan Coy, who lists Downton Abbey and Brideshead Revisited among his many television appearances) and Sheila (Kendal) taking breakfast and reading the Sunday papers on the garden terrace, each is suspicious that something is going on. Then comes the unexpected arrival of total stranger Greg who announces that he wishes to marry Ginny … and that signals a host of misunderstandings.

Everyone seems to get the wrong end of the stick regarding who’s who while what appears to be a complex – yet somewhat predictable – storyline unfolds with hilarious consequences.

It all centres around the older couple not actually having a daughter, although Sheila and Philip adopt the British attitude of politeness in an elaborate charade while the hapless Greg is left wondering what’s going on.

Coy and Kendal are both brilliant as they deliver the clever polished dialogue; he spends time looking for his missing garden hoe while she flits back and forth to the kitchen, first clearing away the breakfast crockery and then bringing out a tray to set the table for Sunday lunch which the ‘strangers’, Ginny and Greg, both find themselves invited to.

There are plenty of tense discussions between all four actors, misunderstandings galore and that makes it a good old-fashion farce. In fact Relatively Speaking is typical ‘end of the pier’ comedy and is undoubedly Ayckbourn at his best.

There are plenty of laugh out loud moments, numerous comical timings plus a wonderful punchline at the end which left the audience in raptures. And although Relatively Speaking was first written almost five decades ago, director Lindsay Posner’s ensures that it really does stands the test of time.

Relatively Speaking plays in Milton Keynes until this Saturday (May 11) with tickets available from the box office on 0844 871 7652 (booking fees apply) or see www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre. Prices range from £15 to £39.50.