Preview: Round and Round the Garden

Round and Round the Garden, together with Table Manners and Living Together, make up Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests trilogy. Perhaps like many of my generation, I was introduced to these plays through the 1978 Thames TV production with Tom Conti, Penelope Keith, Richard Briers and Penelope Wilton. I loved the concept of three different but connected plays, telling the story of the same characters over the same weekend in different parts of the house; and if that wasn’t clever enough, each play stands on its own.

Later, I was lucky enough to play Norman in a production of Table Manners, and ever since I’ve wanted the opportunity to do another of the trilogy; when the call went out for a sunny comedy to brighten the end of a long winter, I naturally thought of Round and Round the Garden. Thanks to our incredible cast and production team, I’m absolutely delighted to be able to bring another of these clever, witty plays to life for a new generation of SLT audiences.

Like all well-written comedies, there is a sadness, even pain, behind the laughter. The characters in the play would have come of age during the colourful, carefree 1960s; now it’s the 1970s, and life is rather more beige: they’re older, they have responsibilities. (“Responsibilities. Blast it,” as Reg says at one point in the play.) There is a sense that the party is over and there is no going back to the Summer of Love. What’s more, the world has changed around them: when Ayckbourn wrote the play, there was an oil crisis and inflation, economically the UK was on its way to becoming the “sick man of Europe”, and the fashions were terrible. None of this intrudes in the world of the play (except maybe for the fashions!); the characters do what people do now or in any age: think of the good old days, try to connect with each other, and look for love.

I asked my considerably younger Assistant Director, Flora, whether she thought our audiences would still find it relevant – after all, the 1970s is a memory for me, but for her it’s history. This was her response:

“This play’s age does not limit its ‘relevance’. In fact, nothing contemporary to the 1970s is really mentioned by these characters. You might think that some of the references to ‘stay at home mums’ or to girls being expected to look after ailing
family members dates it, but it really doesn’t. Many attitudes expressed in this play still prevail. Nor does Norman’s wine-induced epiphany about ‘the kids these days’ date this play; every generation fears the next is better at life than their own;
everyone fears someone else is doing it better.

Round and Round the Garden is about the timeless, desperate scrabble for love and communication, both with others,
and with yourself: it’s about listening to yourself about what you really want. (It’s also got jokes about mothers-in-law, which let’s face it, never get old).”

When rehearsing any comedy, one of the challenges is that at some point the jokes will stop being funny. What has been happening, however, is the actors have been constantly finding new things about their characters and their situations, so that
we are all still laughing. Most of the script is literally dialogue: two characters talking together on stage. This presented other challenges as, despite the action taking place in a garden, I didn’t want to lose that intimacy. So audiences will see we’re making use of the flexibility of our theatre space.

But I suppose the biggest challenge will be trying to create a garden in the Old Fire Station theatre!

There are the siblings Reg, Ruth and Annie. The play takes place in their childhood home in Sussex. Reg and Ruth now live and have careers in London, but Annie has stayed home and finds herself as their mother’s carer. Then there’s Reg’s wife Sarah, who would like to impose order on the family, and Ruth’s husband Norman, who wants to do the opposite. Finally there’s Tom, the local vet, who understands animals but finds people more puzzling, and so is unsure what the next step is in his relationship with Annie. And has Annie grown tired of waiting for him?

I hope they will have enjoyed watching it as much as we have bringing this chaotic weekend to life. But as I said earlier, there is also an element of sadness in the script, it’s not just a fluffy comedy; I hope they will also care about the characters.

Connection. Confusion. Laughter.

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