Brilliant acting, timeless characters but the humour here definitely has an expiration date.
Head to Peter Hall's Bedroom Farce at Duke of York's Theatre and you're guaranteed to be sat in close proximity to a lady, most likely grey-haired and bespectacled, who will cackle and guffaw at every line, most of which will be amusing but hardly belly laugh inducing. These chortling women of a certain age, often joined by their equally amused but quieter, far better halves, serve to highlight the comedy generation gap. Nonetheless, the kernels of these irritating characters and their curious dilemmas ring as true as they did in '75 and with great acting on its side, Bedroom Farce is in for a good run.
A cramped stage presents us with three bedrooms. One is in an unapologetic, thoroughly lived-in state, one is certainly trying to be neat and the last is immaculate and could well belong to Hyacinth Bucket. The last belong to the ever-groomed Delia and Ernest, whose flaky son Trevor is having trouble with his sensitive wife Susannah. The unmade bed belongs to Malcolm and Kate, “love's young dream”, and the half-way mark is met by Nick the invalid and his long-suffering wife Jan.
There are stand-out performances across the board. Credit goes to David Horovitch, whose grumpy, under-the-thumb Ernest only wants a good night's sleep, and Jenny Seagrove who plays his high octane wife. You can't help but be irritated by the man-child that is Trevor, expertly portrayed by Orlando Seale, and his exhausting, affirmation-chanting wife played to perfection by Rachel Pickup. Meanwhile, Finty Williams and Daniel Betts improve vastly after the interval. Having begun their performances with an annoying amount of sprightly energy like the Chuckle Brothers on laughing gas, they're soon forced to deal with the reality of others, and their arguments provide the highlights of the show.
Though the play remains in its era, and won't attract much of a new crowd, two truths emerge: one, of the goings on in peoples bedrooms, it's the conflict and the chaos that's more interesting than the sex. And two, if you're going to 'do Ayckbourn' classically, do it like this.
Bedroom Farce runs at Duke of York's Theatre until 10th July
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