''Relatively Speaking'' is a play by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Alan Ayckbourn Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a prolific British playwright and director. He has written and produced as of 2021, more than eighty full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of ...

, originally titled ''Meet My Father'', his first major success.

Setting

Alan Ayckbourn, Polovične resnice, Mestno gledališče ljubljansko

The action of the play takes place during a summer weekend in the bed-sitting room of Ginny's

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

flat and on the garden patio of Sheila and Philip's home in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, outside London. The time is 1965.

Characters

* Ginny - A young woman with a chequered past * Greg - Ginny's current boyfriend * Philip - Ginny's former employer and ex-lover * Sheila – Philip's wife

Synopsis

The play opens in the flat of Greg and Ginny, a young co-habiting couple, Ginny being the more sexually experienced. Greg finds a strange pair of slippers under the bed and is too besotted to believe they might have been left by another man (which would also explain the bunches of flowers and boxes of sweets filling Ginny's apartment). Ginny goes off for a day in the country, supposedly to visit her parents but actually to break things off with her older married lover, Philip. Greg decides to follow her. The next scene is on the patio at the home of Philip and his befuddled wife Sheila, whose marriage is clearly under strain. Greg shows up unannounced before Ginny, and wrongly assumes that they are her parents. Greg asks for her hand from Philip, while Philip mistakenly believes that the strange young man is asking permission to marry Sheila. Once Ginny arrives, she convinces Philip to play the role of her father. Meanwhile, Greg still believes that Sheila is Ginny's mother. The situation becomes increasingly complicated and hilarious. Although it is basically a comedy of misunderstandings and mistaken identity, as plays of this genre go it has a very well-constructed plot, plus some developed characters and a slightly dark streak.

Production history

''Relatively Speaking'' had its world premiere in Scarborough in 1965. The

production in 1967 at the

Duke of York's Theatre The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster, London. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre until her death in 1935. Designed by th ...

was Ayckbourn's first London West End hit. It also helped to launch

Richard Briers Richard David Briers (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television. Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in ''Marriage Lines'' (1961–66), but ...

' career, and featured

Michael Hordern Sir Michael Murray Hordern CBE (3 October 19112 May 1995)Morley, Sheridan"Hordern, Michael Murray (1911–1995)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, May 2009, accessed 22 July 2015 was ...

and

Celia Johnson Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson, (18 December 1908 – 26 April 1982) was an English actress, whose career included stage, television and film. She is especially known for her roles in the films ''In Which We Serve'' (1942), ''This Happy Bree ...

. It has since been staged a few times by professional and amateur companies, and in 2013 a revival ran for three months at

Wyndham's Theatre Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by actor/manager Charles Wyndham (the other is the Criterion Theatre). Located on Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, it was designed c.1898 by W. G. R. Sprague, the archit ...

in London, starring

Felicity Kendal Felicity Ann Kendal (born 25 September 1946) is an English actress, working principally in television and theatre. She has appeared in numerous stage and screen roles over a more than 70-year career, but the role that brought attention to her ...

as Sheila. The 40th Anniversary production was directed by Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in 2007. Starring Philip York, Eileen Battye, Dominic Hecht and Katie Foster-Barnes. The play has also been produced internationally, in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sri Lanka, in May 2007, by the

British Theatre Playhouse The British Theatre Playhouse (BTP) is a professional theatrical and musical production company incorporated in Singapore in 2004. With the motto ''Bringing to the World the Best in British Entertainment'', the BTP is internationally focused with ...

, and in November 2018 in Belgrade, Serbia.

References

External links

''Relatively Speaking'' on official Ayckbourn website
{{Ayckbourn Plays by Alan Ayckbourn 1965 plays