Bedroom Farce

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Bedroom Farce at the Duke of York's Theatre in London previewed 24 March 2010, opened 30 March 2010, closed 10 July 2010

A major revival of Alan Ayckbourn's comedy Bedroom Farce in London directed by Sir Peter Hall.

Trevor and Susannah have a problem relationship which requires urgent attention. What better solution than to talk it over with family and friends? Preferably in their respective bedrooms and ideally in the middle of the night. Inevitably, one problem relationship tends to spark off another. When you have friends like Trevor and Susannah, nobody gets much sleep.

"Sir Peter Hall's pitch-perfect period revival" The Mail on Sunday

Four couples, three bedrooms, two celebrations, one blazing row and an illicit kiss (or two). Alan Ayckbourn’s ingenious comedy shines a brilliant spotlight onto the trials and tribulations of suburban marriage.

"Alan Ayckbourn's brilliant Bedroom Farce... constantly hilarious" The Sunday Express

Sir Peter Hall, who co-directed the London Premiere of Bedroom Farce with Alan Ayckbourn at the National Theatre in 1977, directs this major revival production that was originally seen at the Rose Theatre in Kingston where he is the theatre's Founding Director.

"A modern classic - wise, touching and funny" The Daily Telegraph

"Painful, tender, deliciously funny, Alan Ayckbourn's ingenious comedy of marriage and manners looks simultaneously quaint and spot-on in this revival by Peter Hall, 32 years after Hall co-directed the play's London premiere with its author at the National Theatre. Unfolding over one night in three suburban bedrooms, the action remains unmistakably set in the Seventies: the trousers are flared, the wallpaper florid and in a world innocent of today's technology, flirtations can't be pursued or misunderstandings set straight by a swift text. But the piece's emotional core remains poignantly, hilariously true... Peter Hall's deft production is beautifully performed... Lovely stuff." The Times

"Peter Hall, returning to a play he first directed at the National in 1977, clearly understands that the title of Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce is deceptive. The play is really a social comedy in which two itinerant destroyers, by hawking their problems from bedroom to bedroom, expose other people's marital frailties. Best of all is the vision of a passionless elderly couple whose greatest physical thrill comes from eating pilchards in bed." The Guardian

"Bedroom Farce examines the knots into which people tie themselves in the name of love. Few dramatists chart this territory quite so well as Alan Ayckbourn, and Peter Hall's fine revival of Bedroom Farce reminds us just what a canny writer he is. The title and three beds on stage promise hanky-panky but Ayckbourn gives us everything but. The plays' four couples eat, fight, sleep and sulk in the beds but never get round to anything else... The staging is beautifully pitched.... each couple is sharply defined... The farce arises not just from clever stagecraft but also from painful revelations - that is what makes it so irresistibly funny." The Financial Times

Bedroom Farce in London at the Duke of York's Theatre previews from 24 March 2010, opens on 30 March 2010 and closes on 10 July 2010. Prior to London, Bedroom Farce was staged at the Kingston Rose Theatre from 1 October to 28 November 2009.