TABLE MANNERS premiered in 1973 in England. It is a very middle class English story, and it is very funny. The one-liners keep the story upbeat despite some unlikeable characters and the misery of the dutiful daughter who has spent years caring for the bed-ridden mother.
Playwright Alan Ackbourn, age 84, has written 89 plays. He is mostly known for these farces. TABLE MANNERS is one part of the trilogy, ‘Norman Conquests’. Regarded as a comic masterpiece, Table Manners has won numerous awards.
The Pymble Players have done a wonderful job of producing this farce, not the easiest of genres to get right but this community theatre group has succeeded.
Fifty years ago, TABLE MANNERS would have had a very different impact than it does today. The difficult issues presented seem very distant now. Women working and couples deciding not to have children were hot topics half a century ago and the play would have stirred debates that are now long gone.
Annie has arranged to spend an illicit weekend with her sister Ruth’s husband Norman. As it happens, the seduction never takes place. That only encourages Norman to try his luck with Sarah who is Annie’s brother Reg’s wife.
Sarah is played by Heather Pitt. Norman, the wayward seducer, is Justin Corcoran. Tom, the autistic visiting vet, is Greg Thornton. Annie, the dutiful daughter, is played by Samantha Lemon. Ruth is Diane Howden, and Reg is Baz Evans. The players are all well cast by the director, Gavin Critchley. The set is detailed and authentic. What an amazing effort by the set designer Ian Auckland and the eight-person team that built it.
The Pymble Players production of Alan Ayckbourn’s TABLE MANNERS is playing at its theatre located at 55A Mona Vale Road Pymble. It is on the corner of Bromley Avenue. The entrance is via Bromley Avenue.
