Stellar writing, direction and performances make audiences enjoy a comic race Round and Round the Garden.
You Might Also Like Reading:What This Show Is About
Round and Round the Garden is part of British playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s trilogy of plays, The Norman Conquests. As in the other two shows, Table Manners and Living Together, we watch in horror and hysterics as Norman, an assistant librarian, tosses one emotional bomb after another into his wife’s family.
Norman is wooing his wife’s sister, Annie, and her brother’s wife, Sarah, simultaneously. He simply doesn’t understand why anyone should have a problem with people being happy, and he firmly believes his happiness should be the first order of business.
Round and Round the Garden shows what is happening outside the family’s country house even as the other plays take place in the home’s living room and dining room.
What You’ll Like About ‘Round and Round the Garden’
Ayckbourn’s writing is once again center stage. He gets more laughs with normal human interaction than other writers get with theatrics. But the direction of Matthew Warchus deserves mention as well. The timing of the interaction of the family and friends is flawless.
Of course, writing and direction need good performances and they are fantastic. It’s no wonder the ensemble has been nominated for multiple awards.
Who’s Who and What’s What
Ben Miles, who plays Tom, a country vet far more comfortable with four-footed animals than with two, stole the show in Table Manners. Here it is Norman’s (Stephen Mangan) turn. There’s a "Seinfeldian" quality to the character Ayckbourn has drawn and Mangan knocks it out of the park . . . or the garden. Round and Round the Garden also stars Jessica Hynes as Annie; Paul Ritter, Reg; Amanda Root, Sarah; and Amelia Bullmore.
Where and When
- Cricle in the Square
235 West 50th Street - Show Times and Tickets
- Previews: April 8, 2009
- Opening: April 23, 2009
- Closing: July 25, 2009
- Run Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes (with intermission)
- Genre: Comedy
- Advisories: None