Alan Ayckbourn's 'Table Manners' at Gloucester Stage

Table Manners

Written by Alan Ayckbourn, Directed by Eric C. Engel, Set Design by Jenna McFarland Lord, Costume Design by Gail Buckley, Lighting Design by Russ Swift, Production Stage Manager Jayscott Crosley

CAST: Barlow Adamson, Tom; Steven Barkhimer, Norman; Lindsay Crouse, Sarah; Jennie Israel, Ruth; Sarah Newhouse, Annie; and Richard Snee, Reg

Performances through July 3 at Gloucester Stage; Box Office 978-281-4433 or www.gloucesterstage.org

A formal dining table with four chairs looms in the center of the stage, the hub of all the activity on a July weekend at the family manse. Three siblings and their significant others are having a reunion of sorts as their bedridden elderly mother languishes unseen and unheard in another part of the house. Like the dining set that used to have six chairs before two "fell to bits," victims of woodworm or old age, the residence is in need of repair and the larder is bare. The family foundation is crumbling, only just held together by Annie, the bohemian sister and primary caretaker, and the tight-lipped, white-knuckled Sarah, sister-in-law and self-proclaimed chief cook and bottle washer visiting for the weekend.  

Welcome to Alan Ayckbourn's Table Manners, the first play in his 1973 trilogy The Norman Conquests, and the opening production of the 31^st season at the Gloucester Stage. With snappy direction by Artistic Director Eric C. Engel, this British comedy features an ensemble cast that overlooks no morsel of humor as they serve up this astute treatise about marriage, family, and, when all else fails, loving the one you're with. The 2009 Broadway run at the Circle in the Square Theater took home the Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards for Best Revival of a Play, and Engel's iteration could scoop up some local bling. 

Sarah (Lindsay Crouse) and husband Reg (Richard Snee) have left their two young children and all their responsibilities at home to care for mother and spell Annie (Sarah Newhouse), who is planning a two-night holiday. Presuming that lovelorn Annie is going away with Tom (Barlow Adamson), the ever-present and somewhat dull veterinarian who looks after the animals and, occasionally, Annie, Sarah is nonplussed when informed that Annie's escort for the getaway is to be Norman (Steve Barkhimer), her sister Ruth's boorish husband. Ruth (Jennie Israel) is far too consumed by her career to notice or care about what Norman is up to, but Sarah summonses her to the house to retrieve him and complete the family circle for dinner.

What follows is emotional mayhem as this group of six sits down to do battle at every meal. While Sarah tries to mandate order and civility, Norman does his best to make himself the center of attention in his quest for a soul mate, Reg strives to get enough to eat and to stay out of the way, and Tom attempts to keep up with all that is going on and correctly interpret Annie's signals. Even more so than Tom, Ruth is like an outsider in this group as she has used her career to distance herself from her mother and siblings, as well as her husband. They are all terribly narcissistic and none of them seem to like each other very much, except for Norman who certainly enjoys the women far more than they enjoy him.  

Barkhimer has a field day playing all sides of the manipulative Norman who is part puppy dog, part recalcitrant child, part rejected lover, and always misunderstood. He uses his physicality to make everyone around him uncomfortable, awaiting his next unexpected move, and telegraphs with his facial expressions which of Norman's characteristics is about to surface. Barkhimer is masterful in an extended monologue, carrying on a conversation with himself when the others choose to ignore him at breakfast. As the family member most inured to his charm, Crouse visibly stiffens at his antics and outbursts, quite an achievement as Sarah is rigid to begin with. She further conveys the character's stuffiness with her clipped speech and ascending tone of voice, but somehow manages to evoke sympathy for this bossy woman who is overburdened by her own compulsiveness.

In his Gloucester Stage debut, Snee appears to be enjoying himself as the easygoing yang to Crouse's uptight yin. Reg is more an observer than a participant, so Snee is often watching the others duke it out with a look of amused interest, as if at a sporting event. His comic timing is excellent when he delivers some of Ayckbourn's zippy one-liners, and his eye rolls and deep sighs of exasperation when Sarah is ordering him around are spot on. Israel also makes her first appearance on this stage and infuses Ruth with a haughty air. She brings to mind an evil Julie Andrews whose presence is the cause of static electricity on the set. In the scenes where she dismisses Norman's hurt feelings as less important than her own lost productivity, she behaves as if she were scraping something distasteful from the bottom of her shoe.

From her first entrance to her final act of frustration, Newhouse brings Annie full circle as the forlorn younger sister trapped in her caretaking role and faced with few options for the foreseeable future. She wears a mask of resignation, but also brightens girlishly when sharing the details of Norman's interest in her, and quietly draws our attention to her reactions even when she is not the focal point. Her scenes with Adamson have a genuine quality as they tiptoe around, unsure of how the other feels and not understanding veiled expectations, resulting in palpable discomfort for both. He tells us more about Tom with his body language than Ayckbourn's script offers and represents a grounded diversion from this dysfunctional family.

The playwright limns the worst of marriage and family, penetrating the darkness until he finds the veins rich with humor and exposes them to the light of day. His script does offer great dialogue, at times dripping with delicious sarcasm, and the actors speak his lines so naturally that we can believe they're a family trading barbs and zingers. The repartee about the seating arrangements at dinner midway through the second act is priceless and builds both tension and comedy. Jenna McFarland Lord's set design forces the actors to walk in circles around the dining table, replicating the way they go round and round with each other, and the out of kilter fireplace and hallway lampshade are suggestive of the misaligned relationships within the family. Gail Buckley's costumes help to define the characters, with Annie's thrift shop outfits and Norman's pajamas speaking the loudest, and Russ Swift's lighting effectively delineates the passage of time throughout the weekend.

You will laugh both with and at these half dozen characters as they search for food and love in many of the wrong places, and you just might see someone familiar at the dining table. In Table Manners, Ayckbourn creates realistic people and places them in a situation that offers the potential for humor and discord. Engel's staging keeps them bumping into each other for essential conflict and comedy. Keep in mind that this is only part one of the trilogy. To be continued?   

Photo Credit: Eric Levenson (The family)

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