Theater Review—

Ackbourn’s ‘Garden’ Enjoyable In Ridgefield

By Julie Stern

RIDGEFIELD — Back in 1973,  before he went on to become Britain’s most successful and prolific playwright, Alan Ackbourn was turning out plays for the kind of seaside summer repertory company portrayed in Michael Frayn’s Noises Off. Asked by an interviewer what he planned to do next, Ackbourn impulsively declared he was writing a trilogy. Once this was published, he felt obligated to write one — and so he did, in one week, constructing three plays around the same six characters  in the same country house, on the same summer weekend.

The house is occupied by a (never seen)  tyrannical old invalid, “Mother,” who is cared for by her long-suffering daughter, Annie, who is apparently loved by her shy next-door neighbor, the veterinarian Tom. Annie has asked her brother Reg and his wife Sarah to come and care for mother so that she can have a weekend “vacation.” Sarah assumes that Annie is running off to spend it with Tom, but in fact, she has planned a tryst with her brother-in-law, Norman, an assistant librarian who is married to her sister, Ruth.

When Sarah discovers what Annie is really planning, she talks her out of it.  His  assignation cancelled, the irrepressible Norman divides his time between courting Annie, seducing Sarah, and charming his wife. These tangled relationships provide the material for a sex farce — or in this case three sex farces, as the basic story is revealed through confrontations in the dining room of the house, the living room, and the garden.

In New York (where it garnered many awards) and in London, all three plays were presented so that audiences could go back and see more of Norman and his shenanigans, although it is not necessary to see all of them, and there is no particular order in which to see them. (It’s simply a gimmick.)

Table Manners is set in the dining room, where Sarah gets angry at Reg and throws food at him.

Living Together is set in the living room, where Ruth is reconciled to her husband’s philandering, and Round and Round the Garden — which is currently being staged at Ridgefield’s Theatre Barn — takes place in the garden outside the house.

The production boasts a lovely realistic set by Frank Funigiello, stagecraft being one of Ridgefield’s perpetually strong suits. It also features some very competent acting, although Harry Lipstein, in the part of Norman, could use a wider range of expressions than the idiotic grin he musters for all occasions. Unless Ackbourn wrote it into the stage directions, it seems too distracting, making it hard to imagine why any of the women involved would be attracted to him.

Lauarel Lettieri gives a strong performance in the part of the short sighted, long suffering Ruth, while Meghan O’Rourke’s Annie makes you want something better for her.

Perhaps that might be Patrick Kelly’s Tom, who is amazingly good at sorting out practical problems, even if he is dumb as paint when it comes to understanding women. Paulette Layton’s Sarah is a bit shrill, but then she has every right to be, and Brian DeToma’s Reg is a timid soul who deserves what he gets.

(Performances continue weekends until October 1.

See the Enjoy Calendar, online and in print, for curtain and ticket details.)