I used to be a fan of Alan Ayckbourn’s plays, his astute observation of everyday life and his inevitable ability to get the middle classes to laugh at themselves. But, as you may have read previously, I was disappointed with the last two plays of his that I saw.
Nevertheless, I went along this evening to see “Surprises” at Richmond Theatre, lured by the copy line “Love stories yet to happen, in a future with surprises”.
It’s set in the future. Yet the first act started with an ageless and rather hackneyed exchange between a father and daughter who disagree about her choice of boyfriend. The subsequent conversation – over technology – between the daughter and her construction man was painfully stilted.
After 40 minutes we were in the first interval and we sought a strong drink. The people behind us didn’t return. My colleague agreed that it had been terribly slow – but pleased that she had managed to nod off considering that it usually takes complete silence and camomile tea for her to do so.
The second act was much better. It really perked up. Richard Stacey – playing Jan the android – was brilliant. Sarah Parks as demanding lawyer Lorraine was formidable and entirely credible. And Laura Doddington artfully played a hyper but lovelorn PA (Sylvia).
There were several laugh-out loud moments and the script must take some credit for those. Some may have taken some pleasure from seeing a powerful female lawyer treated so dismally by her minor celebrity chef husband. And others may have rejoiced as she found a new and unusual kind of love. So we were keen to see how the third and final act panned out.
Sadly, the pace was lost and the play plodded on. I did admire the clever way that the three love scenarios were woven together across the characters. And it made an interesting attempt to prompt us to consider how love could last in a world where people live for 180 years. But it was not a production that I would recommend. And judging from the cutting comments from those in the bar, we were not alone in our views.
The staging was neat – I particularly liked the way in which futuristic devices for things like communication and dream avatars were conveyed even though most of that technology is already with us. Sadly not the time travel device otherwise I think I might have fast-forwarded to the end of the play.
So. An interesting mix of attorneys, androids, avatars and time travellers. And a moral about the dangers of trying to alter the natural course of things. Somewhere in there was also the seed of a brilliant play, but despite the best efforts of the actors, it simply didn’t flourish.
