''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 Alan Ayckbourn, originally titled ''Meet My Father'', his first major success.
Setting
![Alan Ayckbourn, Polovične resnice, Mestno gledališče ljubljansko](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Alan_Ayckbourn%2C_Polovi%C4%8Dne_resnice%2C_Mestno_gledali%C5%A1%C4%8De_ljubljansko.jpg)
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 List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...
flat and on the garden patio of Sheila and Philip's home in
Buckinghamshire, 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
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...
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 Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (3 October 19112 May 1995)Morley, Sheridan"Hordern, Michael Murray (1911–1995)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online e ...
and
Celia Johnson. 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, and in November 2018 in Belgrade, Serbia.
References
External links
''Relatively Speaking'' on official Ayckbourn website
{{Ayckbourn
Plays by Alan Ayckbourn
1965 plays