Bedroom Farce

Alan Ayckbourn’s high-energy comedy was a long-running hit in London and New York. Trevor and Susannah, whose marriage is on the rocks, inflict their miseries on their nearest and dearest: three couples whose own relationships are tenuous at best. Taking place sequentially in the three beleaguered couples’ bedrooms during one endless Saturday night of co-dependence and dysfunction, Bedroom Farce ruffles beds, tempers and domestic order, leading all the players to a hilariously touching epiphany.
In this raucous 1975 comedy, Ayckbourn brilliant combines elements of farce and claustrophobia, distilling the drama into three bedrooms over the course of one endless Saturday night. Cleverly manipulating time and space, Ayckbourn explores the ups and downs of four marriages: older Delia and Ernest, their son Trevor and his wife Susannah, young Malcolm and Kate, and Trevor’s ex-girlfriend Jan and her husband Nick. Gleefully contrasting the younger and older generations, Ayckbourn keeps adding complications and revelations that only seem to further damage the characters’ relationships. Yet somehow, the characters progress, develop and resolve their issues in their own way and pace.