How The Other Half Loves - Richmond Theatre and on tour
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
CASTING has been announced for the UK tour of Bill Kenwright’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s farcical tale of matrimonial mishaps, How the Other Half Loves, which visits Richmond Theatre from October 16 to October 21, 2017.
The tour follows a highly celebrated extended season in London’s West End.
As Bob and Fiona clumsily try to cover up their affair, their spouses’ intervention only adds to the confusion. William and Mary Featherstone become stuck in the middle, falsely accused of adultery and with no idea as to how they’ve become involved. The plot culminates in two disastrous dinner parties on successive nights, shown at the same time, after which the futures of all three couples seem in jeopardy…
At turns heart-wrenching and hilarious, Ayckbourn’s tale of social graces and personal misunderstanding remains one of the celebrated writer’s most famous comedies.
The star cast includes leading stage and TV actor Robert Daws as Frank Foster, best known for the hit series The Royal, Outside Edge and Roger Roger, and Caroline Langrishe as Fiona Foster. Langrishe starred in popular TV shows Lovejoy, Holby City and Judge John Deed.
Charlie Brooks, EastEnders’ Janine Butcher performs as Teresa Philips, with Leon Ockenden, Coronation Street’s Will Chatterton as Bob Philips.
Completing the couples are Matthew Cottle who reprises his critically acclaimed West End performance as William Featherstone and is best known for the BAFTA-nominated Game On, and Sara Crowe as Mary Featherstone. Crowe’s West End credits include Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular and The Constant Wife although she is perhaps best known for her role in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Opening in the West End in 1970 at the Lyric Theatre, How the Other Half Loves ran for a staggering 869 performances, delighting critics and audiences alike. Fondly loved and considered one of Ayckbourn’s most popular plays, it received its first major West End revival in 2016, where it once again thrilled audiences. It was also the first of Ayckbourn’s plays to be staged on Broadway.
2017 marks Alan Ayckbourn’s 56th year as a theatre director and his 58th as a playwright. To date he has written 80 plays – among them Relatively Speaking, Absurd Person Singular, Bedroom Farce, A Chorus of Disapproval and The Norman Conquests – and his work has been translated into over 35 languages. He became the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards and was knighted in 1997 for services to theatre.
How the Other Half Loves is directed by theatre director and biographer Alan Strachan and has set and costume design by Julie Godfrey, lighting design by Jason Taylor and sound design by Dan Samson.
The tour opens at the Theatre Royal Windsor on Wednesday, August 30, 2017, before continuing to Salford, Glasgow, Malvern, Bath, York, Richmond, Guildford, Cheltenham, Brighton and Norwich.