How the Other Half Loves
By Alan Ayckbourn
Directed by Kim Titus
Reviewed by David Ellivloc
Aren’t we all at least a bit curious about what happens behind the closed doors of the neighbors? All while, ironically, being pretty much completely comfortable making sure that the neighbors know nothing or next to nothing about the doings behind our own closed doors? In fact, don’t we sometimes even go so far as to make sure those goings on are hidden from the spouse who shares our door along with the home it protects?
The Pocket Sandwich Theatre production of Alan Ayckbourn’s How the Other Half Loves is a veritable voyeur’s Valhalla laying bare the inner workings of three married couples, connected because the three husbands work at the same company. Our perch in the audience gives us a unique perspective as the stage is set with the intermingled interiors of two homes. Here the living and dining areas of these two homes are basically on top of each other. The set, designed by Robert Clark, is simple and spare and would be unremarkable except for the different styles of furniture intermixed, reflecting each of the couples’ taste and budget, while the upstage walls are painted in alternating swathes of green and orange, with the green areas belonging to the more upscale couple, the Fosters, and the orange areas being part of the drabber Phillips domicile.
Perhaps, it’s a metaphor for how all our lives are inextricably intertwined and our separateness is an illusion. This dramatic conceit of the intermixed interiors allows the audience to see scenes simultaneously unfolding in both homes, while the characters in each home remain oblivious to the action in the other, only interacting with the characters in theirs. Indeed, scenes in the shared dining room allow for seamless transitions back and forth in time, as well as space, as the third couple has two dinners simultaneously on separate nights, one repast with each of the other couples. This is a remarkable challenge for the actors that is well met by all, a hilarious feat that alone makes the ticket price worthwhile. This gives the production a somewhat cinematic feel as the shifting between scenes and locations is immediate and effortless, while still retaining the intimacy and vitality that only live theater can deliver.
I won’t be surprised if the above sounds complicated, but rest assured, this skewed view of things will quickly become comfortable and is quite remarkable. This perspective is established right at the top of the play as we see the first two couples begin their day. Marissa Nelson’s Fiona Foster sexily enters in an elegant negligee and promptly dials the cordless phone in her upscale living room, ringing the phone in the other decidedly untidy home strewn with a child’s toys and the call is answered by Rae Harvill as harried housewife, Teresa Phillips. Nelson’s Fiona doesn’t respond to Teresa’s increasingly strident halloes and hangs up without a word. The two actresses cross within feet of each other never acknowledging each other or the furniture or things outside their own “homes”.
Again, this is begun within the first seconds of the play and immediately escalates as Jake Shanahan’s Frank Foster comes bursting into his home after a quick morning jog sporting outrageous Union Jack shorts. As he comes in Harvill’s Teresa bustles off to her kitchen from her living room, unseeing and unseen by the Foster’s in their living room. Throughout the play, the entire cast, a true ensemble cast in every sense, is remarkable in their concentration and commitment to whichever scene they are playing while, oftentimes, another completely different scene is swirling all around them on stage.
Shanahan’s Frank Foster is delightfully vague about the details of life, including where the couple lived in the past and on what shelf his clean shirts are kept in the closet. Although Shanahan’s vague Frank delights the audience, he is too excruciatingly dim for Nelson’s Fiona, whose visible clenching of the jaw and behind-his-back eye rolls clearly indicates he’s on her last nerve. Certainly, these two are on each other’s nerves, as Shanahan’s Frank knows Nelson’s Fiona has little understanding and sympathy for him.
Shanahan’s Frank is the senior of the three men at work and we first see Bryan Brooks as Bob Phillips as he comes on stage to answer the ringing phone. Frank is calling to get his opinion of the third man, William Featherstone, who will be joining their team. The tension between Brooks and Harvill as the Phillipses is evident from the outset. When Harvill’s Teresa announces that she’s made tea for two she makes it clear that Brooks’ Bob will have to get his own cup, and he returns rather peeved from the kitchen after he discovers the teapot is empty. This possibly passive aggression turns more overt as Harvill’s Teresa quizzes Bob about just where he was and what he was doing until he returned home drunk in the wee hours of the morning, her strident tone more like that of a prosecuting attorney than a wife. Their bickering banter and back-and-forth about their relatively newborn baby make their marriage, and the never seen baby, Benjamin, very real. Meanwhile, Shanahan’s Frank is quizzing Nelson’s Fiona about her own late night out, a night which he must remind her was their wedding anniversary.
It quickly becomes clear to the audience that Fiona Foster and Bob Phillips are having an affair. And here’s where the farcical nature of this comedy really starts up. For Bob tells Teresa that he’s been out with William Featherstone because Featherstone needed to a friendly ear for his marital troubles. Then, Nelson’s Fiona, after learning from Bob about his lie to Teresa, tells her Frank that she’d been out consoling Mary Featherstone. Watching these two spiders, Fiona and Bob, try to keep from getting tangled in their own web of lies, while everyone else gets stuck, is where the fun lies in this play.
The Featherstones are invited to Thursday night dinner by his new boss Frank Foster, and Friday night dinner by Harvill’s Teresa, as she’s concerned about what her husband Bob has falsely told her about the Featherstone’s marital troubles. Sarah Perkins’ Mary Featherstone is a bundle of nervous energy and eagerness to please everyone. Perkins gives her Mary a working-class North England accent, sounding like she’s straight from the rough streets of Manchester, which adds to the authenticity of her struggle to fit in with her husband’s work colleagues and their spouses. Matthew Good’s William Featherstone is rail thin and a human third rail you wouldn’t want to touch when he gets angry. Here again, both actors deftly create a convincing married couple, in this case one that is younger and still struggling to come into their own and come together. Being the falsely maligned couple in the play, the Featherstones naturally invite sympathy, but Perkins’ Mary is so sweet, and Good’s William becomes so outraged, you genuinely feel sorry for their distress.
Nelson’s Fiona, as the cheating wife, does not garner automatic sympathy, and furthermore she does not shy away from making Fiona a coldhearted Karen, yet Shanahan’s Frank might drive even a saint to sin with his oblivious self-involved unself-aware self. So don’t be surprised to find yourself rooting that somehow Nelson’s Fiona avoids being found out, and that Frank will remain blissfully oblivious. Brooks makes a gruffly sexy Bob, the sort of rough n’ready man who might marry an earth mother type like Harvill’s overwhelmed new mom, Teresa, yet begrudge his new fatherly responsibilities and seek solace with a languid lonely lady like Nelson’s Fiona. Yet all the while, you also see the attraction and comfort between Brooks and Harvill as the Phillipses and wonder if just some more sleep and a night without the kid might be all they need to reconnect.
Sarah Hearns’ Costume Design keeps the class and income distinctions between the three couples very clear. The Phillipses parade around their home in underwear, towels, or even a gawd-awful romper for Harvill’s Teresa, while the Fosters have a more put together and elegant look both in private and public. The Featherstones are modestly attired in every sense of the words, especially Perkins’ Mary whose skirts go well below the knee and whose blouses go right up to neck, sometimes hidden under a shapeless sweater.
Fight Choreographer, Matthew Edwards, and Fight Captain, Marissa Nelson, have worked with the director and cast to create some great physical comedy moments throughout the play. Perkins garners a huge laugh in one scene with some physical comedy when her Mary runs screaming out of one of the homes only to come screaming right into the other. The physical comedy in the dinner scene is also wonderful as all the actors keep the action going, with Perkins and Good, whose characters are at both dinners, shifting back and forth between dinners and hosts with seeming ease.
Come be a fly on the wall and see How the Other Half Loves and discover how things turn out. Director Kim Titus has organized a talented cast who has set a break-neck pace worthy of this farce. And remember, an evening at the Pocket Sandwich Theatre can ALWAYS be dinner, drinks, and a show, if you wish. Nachos with everything and a few pitchers of beer rounded out the evening for this laughing fly on the wall. House opens at 6:30pm with a starting time at 8pm.
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.
Accessible seating: Yes
Hearing Devices Available: Not Available
Sensory Friendly Showing: Not Available
Audience Rating: PG-13 due to references to extramarital sex and some curse words.
Production Sound Level: Comfortable
Noises and Visuals to Know About: Yelling and physical fights, including one with a weapon.
See you at the theater!
David Ellivloc
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