EntertainmentTheatre

How The Other Half Loves at the Theatre Royal Glasgow Review

Reviewed by Deborah Mackenzie

Walking into Glasgow’s Theatre Royal, the luxurious but not over the top décor, winding stairs to each floor make a welcoming sight. Having had a snack from the café, where they have the most wonderfully tempting cakes to try after a lovely bowl of soup or sandwich. Each floor has a fully stocked bar with your favourite tipple… it is one of my favourite places to go and see one of their show stopping performances.

Last night’s performance of Alan Ayckbourn’s How the Other Half Loves had us laughing out loud from the first few minutes with clever word playing and tongue in cheek wit.

How the Other Half Loves features three couples whose husbands work together and their lives become intertwined due to infidelity and cover ups across classes and attitudes to marriage.

Frank and Fiona Foster are a middle age couple who are well to do. But Fiona has a fling with Bob Phillips, whose relationship with his wife Teresa is stormy. But when Fiona and Bob both name William and Mary Featherstone as their alibi after a late night out together, confusion and misunderstandings ensue.

Robert Daws and Caroline Langrishe as the Fosters are charming. She appears prim proper and in control, while her husband Frank is forgetful, easily mislead and unable to grasp what is going on around him.

Leon Ockenden and Charlie Brooks as the Phillips’ are continually fighting. She is a stay at home mother who wants more, is exhausted from looking after their baby and treated badly by her obnoxious husband. He is a bullying, selfish and chauvinistic with the ‘I can do what I want attitude’.

Matthew Cottle and Sara Crowe as the Featherstone’s seem to come from a different era. He is a geeky, plain and bossy husband who takes the credit for making Mary who she is. Mary is quiet, afraid of her shadow and lacking confidence. But, she breaks through this demeanour when she’s with the Fosters and able to communicate with Teresa.

The way that the stage is designed showing two households at once is unique and works well. Timing is everything and the actors mastered it to the split second, especially the dinner scene, where both dinners were served together.

The ending was a tangle of misunderstanding and lies, that when Frank tried to reconcile those he thought were having an affair, made it worse and then better, only to never get to the truth.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching How the Other Half Loves was a flawless and impeccably timed performance. Loving clever with and play on words this was a show we are still chuckling about and remarking on together.

Rating: 5/5

Tickets cost from £15.40 to £38.90 (plus £2.85 transaction fee).

How The Other Half Loves is at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow from18-23 September 2017, for more information or to book tickets visit www.atgtickets.com/theatre-royal-glasgow or call the box office on 0844 871 7647.

Theatre Royal, 282 Hope Street, Glasgow, G2 3QA | 0844 871 7647

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