logo
Bedroom Farce
By:
Date performed:
Alan Ayckbourn
May 2015

Information about this production is shown below. To return to the main productions page click here.

Details

Bedroom Farce takes place over the course of one night in three bedrooms, all present on stage.

Ernest and Delia are about to embark on a rare foray out for their anniversary dinner, but Delia is concerned about their son Trevor and his wife, Susannah. Delia believes he should have married the more 'resilient' Jan. The meal is a disaster and by the end of the first act, the couple are enjoying pilchards on toast in bed.

At Jan and Nick's house, Nick is lying incapacitated in bed and Jan is about to go to Malcolm and Kate's house-warming party, although Nick suspects Trevor's presence is also a factor for her going. She leaves and Nick subsequently falls out of bed. Unable to move, he spends the first act in varying states of distress on his bedroom floor.

At the party, where the bedroom is acting as a cloakroom, Trevor arrives - without Susannah - and reveals he and Susannah are not getting on; she promptly arrives in a distraught state. She and Kate chat about their relationships and the paranoid Susannah tells her she believes she revolts Trevor. He comes to see her; they end up fighting and ruin the party. Trevor and Jan have a heart to heart in which he is revealed to be a rather spoilt, immature and temperamental man who can't see how badly he treats people. They kiss, just as Susannah enters the room; she leaves greatly upset and Kate, much to Malcolm's annoyance, says Trevor can sleep over. Trevor decides he has to put things right with Jan and Nick first.

Jan returns home to find Nick stranded. She eventually gets him onto the bed and tells him about the kiss - their relationship too is hardly at its best. Trevor arrives and confesses all to Nick, before falling asleep on the bed.

In frustration, Malcolm has decided to assemble the dressing table he bought as a present for Kate. As they wait for Trevor to return, the pair discuss their relationship, Kate revealing how unsatisfied she is.

Meanwhile, Susannah has fled to Ernest and Delia and tells all to Delia. Delia dishes out words of wisdom, Ernest is consigned to the spare room leaving Susannah to sleep with Delia. Early the next morning, Susannah determines to call Trevor. She discovers he's slept at Jan's. In a state, she manages to contact him, they make peace but not before Trevor's been to Malcolm and Kate to apologise. There, he manages to destroy the dressing table but is reconciled with Susannah. But will anything change? 

Playwright
Alan Ayckbourn is one of the world's most popular and prolific playwrights. He has written 78 full-length plays, of which more than half have been produced in the London West End as well as around the world. He is also an acclaimed director.

Bedroom Farce opened at the Library Theatre Scarborough on 16th June 1975. After a preview at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, it finally opened at the National on the 16th March 1977.   There was then a tour to Canada/America and a television version was agreed with Granada Television which went out in 1980.   Since that time it has been revived on numerous occasions by both professional and amateur groups



Photographs


(Click on images to view full size versions).




Cast
Backstage
Ernest John Fereday
Delia Edwina Gascoyne
Nick Harry Nixon
Jan Haley Sadler
Malcolm Matt Screaton
Kate Sarah Fox
Trevor John Moran
Susannah Jenn Aspinall
Fran Rooker

Director Phil Gascoyne
Set Design Hansel D'Roza
Phil Gascoyne
Set Construction Bryan Ashcroft
Hansel D'Roza
John Jakins
Paul Kelly
Dave Parkin
Graham Ward
Stage Manager Hansel D'Roza
Stage Crew Anthony Maycock
Lighting Paul Kelley
Paul Screaton
Sound Bryan Ashcroft
John Jakins
Properties Bridget Ball
Continuity Andrea Howard
Front of House Charlotte Gascoyne
Friends of Tudor
Ticket Secretary Janet D'Roza