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About How the Other Half Loves

2002

  • Genre: Drama

  • Playwright: Alan Ayckbourn

  • Director: Julian Oldfield

Cast

Fred Fargher

Frank Foster

Jill Dunne

Fiona Foster

John Daykin

Bob Phillips

Megan Cooper

Teresa Phillips

David Glazebrook

William Featherstone

Peppa Sindar

Mary Featherstone

Crew

  • Directed by

    Julian Oldfield

  • Stage Manager

    Deb Hoskin

  • Crew

    David Bradley, Josh Noble, Bronwyn Oldaker, Sophie Richardson

  • Lighting

    Frank, Kieran & Leon Hanrahan

  • Foyer

    Yvonne Downing and BNT Members

  • Photography

    Helen Irving

  • Graphic Design

    Peter Freund

  • Pre Production

    Yvonne & Ivan Downing, David Dusting, Tim Gay, Stewart Greedy, Wendy Hall, Andrew Henwood, Brian McClelland, Tony McGuiness, James McLaren, Peter Nethercote, Julian Oldfield, Ken Prato, Hedley Thomson, Graham Walker, Michael Zala and Peter Zala.

  • Set Construction

    Frank Lilley - ably assisted by...David Bradley, Fred Fargher,
    Wendy Hall, Deb Hoskin, Tony McGuinness, Peter Nethercote, Josh Noble, Matt Noble, Julian Oldfield, Megan Pinkerton, Sophie Richardson, Val Sarah, Margaret Solomon, Graham Walker.

Performance Gallery

Reviews

Reviewer - Peter Freund

This is a very funny play given a very competent airing.
National Theatre's choice of Ayckbourn's 1970 farce, How The Other Half Loves with an experienced cast headed by Fred Fargher and Jill Dunne, gives Ballarat theatre-goers a great pre-Christmas outing.
It's well-paced and has good energy with a tangle of confusions erupting occasionally into farcical climax. It's complex and clever, as one might expect from an Ayckbourn comedy.

The stage simultaneously represents two houses.
It is the elegant home of Frank, a department head, and his wife Fiona and, at the same time, the chaotic apartment of his junior, Bob, his wife Teresa and their small child.
Each family uses its own furniture and, of course, telephone. It's all a contemporary spin on the farce door routines, but here, if people go out one door, they may well be coming back into another house altogether. Sound confusing?

In this carefully choreographed production, it's clear all the time what is happening, where, when and to whom. It starts with a little lie by Fiona, played by Jill Dunne with her usual poise and confidence, to Frank, played by Fred Fargher with great energy and comic verve, to cover her affair with Bob. Bob, a punchy, up-front John Daykin, also lies to his over-stressed wife Teresa, a feisty Megan Cooper. The web of deceit and confusion grows, tangling up as innocent victims the self- confident William, a relaxed performance from David Glazebrook, and his mousy wife, Mary, played meekly and engagingly by Peppa Sindar.
It all resolves with everyone a little the wiser.

Julian Oldfield has directed this challenging piece with his usual attention to detail and has recruited an efficient band of helpers to undertake the complex set changes, which are a performance in themselves. Lighting, set and costumes support the action well.