Round And Round The Garden

Devonshire Park Theatre, Compton Street, Eastbourne, Thursday, July 23, to Saturday, August 8

“WHAT Norman tends to do is throw little hand grenades into situations and see what happens – how far he can push certain people.”

Eastbourne audiences were introduced to libidinous assistant librarian Norman in the Devonshire Park Theatre production of Table Manners last summer.

Now Chris Jordan, artistic director of Eastbourne Theatres, is returning to one of Alan Ayckbourn’s best-loved creations with Round And Round The Garden from The Norman Conquests trilogy.

The three interlinked plays – which can all be enjoyed as separate works - consolidated the playwright’s career when they were performed in rep in London’s West End in 1974.

“The original cast featured Richard Briers, Penelope Keith and Felicity Kendall who all went on to star in The Good Life,” says Jordan. “I always think of it as a classic 1970s sitcom on stage. The six characters are all so well-drawn there is lots for the actors to get their teeth into.”

The Norman Conquests covers a weekend in a country house with three siblings and their partners, all told from the point of view of a different location – Table Manners from the dining room, Living Together from the living room, and Round And Round The Garden on the rambling grounds outside the old rectory.

Round And Round The Garden bookends the trilogy, as uptight Sarah (Natasha Grey) and companionable Reg (Kevin Pallister) come to look after Reg’s invalided mother, while her usual carer, the apparently meek and mild Annie (Jo Castleton), goes on holiday for the weekend.

Little do they know Annie is set for a weekend in East Grinstead with Norman (Charles Davies), the husband of Reg and Annie’s sister, the tough and passionate Ruth (Sarah Stanley).

As Ruth unexpectedly appears to chase down her errant husband, thrown into the mix is Annie’s would-be suitor, the clueless vet Tom (David Partridge). A night on powerful nettle wine brings revelations and long-held rivalries to the surface.

“One actor came in not having read either of the other two plays,” says Jordan. “He felt he needed to get his head around the truth of one play, without being too influenced by the other two.

“In putting the play on it’s great to have the context of the other plays – it means the characters are more rounded. It’s so much fun to unpack as a company. The challenge is to make sure an audience member doesn’t need to have seen the other two plays to understand it.”

Jordan particularly enjoys the garden setting, which he says has been great fun to recreate on stage.

“The garden is where people come out to vent their spleen, or let off steam about what’s going on in the house,” he says. “You see some of the aftermath when people storm out of the room from the other plays – it’s quite fun and exciting.”

Jordan has kept the 1970s period with the fashion and props, including brightly coloured plastic suitcases ready for Annie and Norman’s dirty weekend away in East Grinstead (Hastings was fully booked).

“There is a certain nostalgia,” says Jordan. “These days people would be going to Paris or Prague.

“Norman is pretty much a product of his time. He asks for what he wants. I don’t know if he always wants it – he just wants to see if it works, almost as an experiment. All these dinners and whispering sweet nothings in people’s ears – he wants to know if he would get the same effect by asking someone directly to go away on a dirty weekend.

“I’m sure Norman has evolved into something similar today – I don’t think human nature changes fundamentally, perhaps what is acceptable has changed.”

He believes part of the reason Ayckbourn’s plays remain so popular is because audiences can see themselves and their friends in the productions.

“When I was younger I remember watching Season’s Greetings with my parents and thinking it was just like Christmas at our house,” says Jordan. “Ayckbourn can write stuff we can all relate to, and then pushes it a little further.”

As for the future Jordan is considering whether to complete the trilogy next summer with Living Together – or take on an even bigger challenge.

“I’ve thought how much fun it would be to interlink two plays – see a character go out of one location and into another,” he says. “Possibly we will do a double bill of [Ayckbourn’s 1999 play] House And Garden which was written along that premise – with the house in Devonshire Park and the garden in Winter Garden being performed simultaneously.”

Starts 7.45pm, Wed and Sat matinees 2.30pm, no shows Sun and Mon, tickets from £15.50. Call 01323 412000.