Stage West Presents Alan Ayckbourn's Trilogy The Norman Conquests Starting March 19

Norman Dewers is a librarian on a mission-to make women happy. The woman he is currently focused on happens to be his wife's sister, Annie, who lives in the country and looks after her ailing mother. He has planned to take Annie away for an illicit weekend-but that plan is about to be thwarted. Sister-in-law Sarah, who had agreed to look after Mum in Annie's absence, has wormed the truth out of Annie, and suddenly no one is going anywhere. Now everyone will be spending an uncomfortable weekend together, along with Norman's wife, Ruth, who will be joining them in a day.
One country house, two sisters, one brother, two in-laws, one not-quite-suitor, one would-be gigolo, and endless comings, goings, and misunderstandings. It's a recipe for utter hilarity, as Stage West presents all three plays of The Norman Conquests, by the master of British comedy, Alan Ayckbourn, beginning Thursday, March 19.

The Norman Conquests is actually a trilogy of plays-Table Manners, Living Together, and Round and Round the Garden. The genius of Ayckbourn is that he has written the trilogy so that each play can be enjoyed independently. But in combination (seen in any order), they create a fascinating web of events and secrets, along with entrances and exits worthy of high farce. To see one play makes for a riotous evening of theatre; to see all three more than triples the laughs.

Stage West will open one play per week, after which they will run in rotating rep, and there will be two marathon performance days (a hugely popular option when Stage West previously produced this piece) with dinner and dessert offered between shows.

In a preface written in 1974, Ayckbourn said of the writing of this play "When I first considered the trilogy, I was aware that it would be optimistic to expect an audience...to be able to give up three nights of their precious holiday to come to our one theatre. Any suggestion that it was essential to see all three plays to appreciate any one of them would probably result in no audience at all. Similarly, were the plays clearly labeled Parts One, Two and Three, any holidaymaker determined to play Bingo on Monday would probably give up the whole idea as a bad job. The plays would therefore have to be able to stand independently-yet not so much that people's curiosity as to what was happening on the other two nights wasn't a little aroused." He clearly succeeded; John Barber, of the Daily Telegraph, wrote "To write one brilliant comedy is a feat. To write three in a row, all about the same people, is a tour de force so exceptional I can only throw my hat in the air and rejoice."

Jerry Russell and Jim Covault will share directing duties for The Norman Conquests, with Jerry directing Table Manners and Round and Round the Garden, while Jim directs Living Together. Playing scruffy charmer Norman will be Justin Flowers, last seen on our stage as Snobby Price in Major Barbara. Annie, the object of his affections, will be played by Stage West newcomer Emily Eldredge, whose credits include Cinderella in Into the Woods and Goneril in King Lear. Emily Gray, seen as Belinda in Theatre Three's Season's Greetings, will play Sarah, with Mark Shum, most recently seen at Stage West as the hapless Gussie in The Code of the Woosters, will play her husband Reg. Lydia Mackay, acclaimed for such roles as Blanche in Contemporary Theatre of Dallas's A Streetcar Named Desire, appears as Norman's pragmatic wife Ruth. And David Meglino, last seen as "Stinker" Pinker in Stage West's The Code of the Woosters, will play the clueless veterinarian Tom.

The set for all three plays will be designed by Jim Covault, with costumes by Covault and Peggy Kruger-O'Brien. Lighting will be provided by resident lighting designer Michael O'Brien (Table Manners) and guest lighting designer Bryan Stevenson (Living Together and Round and Round the Garden), while Lynn Lovett will handle props and set decor.

Estimated run time for each of the three plays: 2 hours, 15 minutes (including intermission).
Table Manners will preview Thursday, March 19 at 7:30 and Friday, March 20 at 8:00, Living Together previews March 26 and March 27 (days/times as above), and Round and Round previews 4/2 and Saturday 4/4 at 3:00 (no performance Friday, April 3 due to Stage West Gala). There will also be no performance Easter Sunday, April 12. Performance times will be Thursday evenings at 7:30, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00, with Sunday matinees at 3:00. The opening night reception will be Saturday, March 21. Ticket prices range from $24 to $28, with discounts for students and seniors. Preview tickets are priced at only $15. Pay What You Can performances will be the first Thursdays of each show, 3/19, 3/26, and 4/2. The full schedule may be found on our website, www.stagewest.org. Food service is available 90 minutes prior to performances (reservations strongly advised), and information is available through the Box Office, or on the website, www.stagewest.org. Single tickets will be available for each show on the marathon dates; patrons are not required to see all three.

Photo by Buddy Myers, Pictured are Justin Flowers and Lydia Mackay.

 

 

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