House and Garden - Bridewell Theatre/Bridewell Hall
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
Sedos is presenting Alan Ayckbourn’s technical masterpiece House and Garden: a duet of plays performed simultaneously in two theatres with a single cast moving between the two plays.
Garden will be performed in the Bridewell Theatre, and simultaneously, House will be performed in the Bridewell Hall – from October 24 to November 3, 2012.
The actors leave one stage to join the action in the other. All the cast perform in both plays; their characters remain the same throughout!
The plays are set in the present day in the country manor house of the Platt Family. The action in House takes place in the principal ground floor sitting room, which backs onto the garden of the house. The action in Garden takes place simultaneously in the lower meadow, which is behind the ‘formal’ garden.
Matt Gould, who directs, explains more about the shows:
“The two plays are performed simultaneously by the same cast, but in two separate auditoria. The cast are playing the same characters throughout, so — assuming that you see both plays! — you see the characters appear both in the house, where there is an important lunch party about to happen, and in the garden of the house, where preparations for the annual village fete are underway. The characters leave the action in one play, and join the action in another — just like real life!”
The two plays are ‘standalone’ comedies and can be viewed in either order. There is no need to see both; however the audience is encouraged to do so because it is on seeing the second play that the ‘full picture’ is revealed – and that is where the real magic lies.
House and Garden are the most technically challenging of Alan Ayckbourn’s plays and an ambitious project that most amateur companies would shy away from.
The cast includes Pete Bryans, Mel Johnson, Shani Schwartz, Peter Myers, Anne-Marie Chronnell, Myles Dobson, Chris de Pury, Mark Ryan, Louise Bakker, Lucy Allenby, Charlotte Price, Paul Francis, Maggie Robson and Sarah Evans.
Tickets: £15 (concession £12.50). Save 20% with a combined ticket to both plays: £24 (£20). All are available online at www.sedos.co.uk/.
Times: Evening shows (Wednesday to Saturday) at 7.30pm; Saturday, October 27 at 2.30pm and 7.30pm; Sunday, October 28 at 2pm and 6.30pm. No performance Monday, October 29 or Tuesday, October 30.
Garden Fête Weekend – Saturday, October 27 and Sunday, October 28: Enjoy the fête and catch both shows in one day. With food, drink, stalls and games between the shows, it promises to be a lot of fun!
Charity Night – Wednesday, October 31, with 50% of proceeds donated to Mousetrap Theatre Projects, Sedos Charity of the Year.