Matilda Ridgway, Brian Meegan, Danielle Carter and Sam O’Sullivan in Table Manners. Photo: Prudence Upton
I wondered how this trilogy would hold up in 2018, in the midst of #MeToo and changed sensibilities, but I am happy to report that Alan Ayckbourn’s Table Manners, in the very capable hands of director Mark Kilmurry and an exceedingly fine cast, make it as fresh and funny as when it debuted in 1973, and the Norman of the conquests – although a character
we love to hate – is quite delightfully odious.
As Kilmurry points out in the program, “We are still trying to work out who we are in relation to gender, family, love, sex and belonging. Society may have changed the way it reacts to certain gender politics but the rift between partners and the desperation of trying to make things work within a family are still exactly the same.”
Table Manners is presented as a period piece and the set design and costuming (both by Hugh O’Connor) are just perfect. (Disclosure: I have worn these clothes, lived in these rooms!) So we transported back to 1970s England, with its preoccupation with appearances (including table mats for best occasions); its high-heeled brown suede boots and prissy navy and white ensembles; and its changing social mores.
Yalin Ozucelik and Danielle Carter in Table Manners. Photo: Prudence Upton
The action for all three plays takes place over one weekend in the home Annie (Matilda Ridgway) shares with her invalid (and unseen) mother. The long-suffering, left-at-home-to-look-after-mother Annie is to be given a few days respite
for some R&R, courtesy of her brother Reg (Brian Meegan) and his wife Sarah (Danielle Carter). It takes only a nanosecond for us to understand that Sarah is the sister-in-law from hell – an uptight, officious know-all, and a victim to boot – and in no time she has exposed Annie’s plan for a dirty weekend with, of all people, her brother-in-law Norman (Yalin Ozucelik).
That Annie would resort to such desperate measures is an indication of her desperate circumstances rather than her morality or Norman’s dubious charms. Either way, Sarah is not impressed, cancels Annie’s escape and immediately summons Norman’s wife Ruth (Rachel Gordon) to the house.
Ruth is something of an oddity to Sarah as she is both childless by choice and a woman more interested in her career than her husband; she is also myopic and too vain to wear glasses (though this cannot be the only reason why she doesn’t see Norman in the same way the rest of us do.) “I don’t own him,” she says, a remark as challenging now in its flouting of monogamy and acceptance of extra-marital trysts as it was back in the ’70s. Norman, meanwhile, an unedifying specimen of manhood if ever there was one, instead of waiting discreetly in the village, turns up and escalates the action into the wonderful farce that Ayckbourn intends it to be.
Norman (Yalin Ozucelik ) and Ruth (Rachel Gordon) in full battle. Photo: Prudence Upton
Ridgway is quite wonderful in portraying the put-upon Annie, whether dejected or defiant or simply tired of her whole family situation; Carter is a whirlwind of vitriol, blaming everyone but herself for anything and everything. The early scenes between Ridgway and Carter are as brilliant and as cringeworthy as nails down a blackboard. Meegan is a terrifically beige Reg, an estate agent and clearly a disappointment to Sarah. Annie’s pathetic quasi beau Tom (Sam O’Sullivan), incapable of commitment, is a vision of round-shouldered, high-waisted non-manhood, and of course ridiculed by Norman at every opportunity. Tom prefers animals to people, so it’s just as well he’s a vet.
And then there is the over-sexed, underwhelming, overbearing Norman himself, a role that Ozucelik plays with relish. Norman is a legend in his own libido. Why don’t we hate him? Well, we do. But he, too, is a rather pathetic figure, a self-deluded man-child in his chauvinism and selfishness – but he does have some very good lines! Norman lives outside the normal rules, challenging everyone.
And this is one of Ayckbourn’s many strengths: he holds a mirror up to all of us, challenging us and our ways of living. Table
Manners may be dated in appearance, but you will recognise these characters, laugh at them and pity them, and hope that you aren’t one of them!
Living Together and Round and Round the Garden complete this award-winning trilogy, all of which trace the unravelling of Norman and his flailing romantic ambitions from a slightly different, and often simultaneous perspective. Each stands alone, but can also be seen one after the other on one of the Trilogy Days.
Table Manners, by Alan Ayckbourn, in rep as part of The Norman Conquests trilogy until January 12, 2019. More details at www.ensemble.com.au
