A small family business

This is another theatre revival, of an 1980s Alan Ayckbourn farce based on a wonderfully corrupt family furniture business. Jack comes back to takeover as Chief Executive of the family firm. It opens with a great scene where he comes home to a surprise party, the guests being carefully secreted in the living room by his wife. Unfortunately Jack decides that what he really wants is a bit of how's-your-father with his wife. We watch as he gradually strips off his shirt, uses his tie as a bandana and heads in promising his wife some rough sex, to be greeted by his entire family. Unfortunately the play never gets another scene as funny.



That isn't to say its a bad evening, or unfunny. Just perhaps not Ayckbourn's best play. The cast are good, especially the wonderfully creepy private investigator who almost oozes slime as he walks. Employed to find out who is ripping the company off, it soon becomes evident that it is his whole family. However, its the PI who proves the most corruptible of all, and the most troublesome to get rid of. Eventually he meets his fate at the hands of the womenfolk in the family bathroom. Which then requires more money to pay the Italians to dispose of his body.

The serious theme to this play, just discernible above the farce, is that when one starts with dishonesty, it just leads to more and more and is very difficult to stop.