Time and Time Again. The Mill at Sonning: Review (From Bucks Free Press)

Time and Time Again. The Mill at Sonning: Review

3:38pm Thursday 17th December 2009

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LACONIC Leonard is one of those characters the marvellous Alan Ayckbourn brings us in such quantity and with delicious quality.

Like so many of his social comedies Aycbourn reminds us not just of those people around us in their oh so fragile state but also of ourselves and how we react to others.

Returning from his mum’s funeral, Leonard (Ian Targett) plants himself in the garden of his mum’s home, alone, but sees through the conservatory window his lecherous brother in law, Graham (John Arthur) make a ham fisted pass at family friend Joan (Amy Hall).

Joan’s fiancée, Peter (Nicholas Atkinson) who is also Leonard’s best friend, turns up just after and along with Leonard’s sister Anna (Lesley Mead) who is Graham’s wife, decide on tea, Leonard still taking his in the garden while talking to a gnome.

Leonard is a maverick, out of work, teacher, and becomes interesting to Joan who quickly falls for him.

What transpires in this delightfully wicked look and the social amours of suburban society is both shocking and subtle in Aycbourn’s inimitable style.

The action goes along with seasons as we find Peter is a sports mad bloke who keeps getting injured but is desperate to show the unsporting Leonard up in cricket then football.

As time goes on he suspects fiancée Joan of having an affair with the lecherous Graham but is unaware that Graham is actually obsessed with spying on the real lovers, Leonard and Joan.

At one glorious point the pair literally fall into the garden pond in each other’s arms.

There is nothing funnier than the folk around us and the awkwardness of this absurd misunderstanding on all sides results in a twist of Aycbournesque proportions as Peter finally assaults the innocent Graham before latching on to the truth.

Crossed wires and the hilarity of his characters highlight our own insecurities in confronting reality.

This is Aycbourn at his very best.

Targett is terrific as the sickly, hapless and drearily romantic Leonard.

Arthur is gruesomely good as the over bearing, brutish and boorish Graham, whose bigoted nature is only outshone by his obsessive stupidity. As he says to anyone with a story to tell: ‘Oh, that happened to me once’. We’ve all met them.

Atkinson is perfect as the excessively egotistical Peter.

Hall is excellent as the prim and proper Joan who turns out to be Leonard’s man eating love interest.

And Meade is magnificent as Graham’s down trodden wife who tries to put it all right on the night.

This is a must for all fans of social comedy and a superb night out for both devotees of the great Aycbourn and those who have yet to find the joys of his wit, wisdom and warmth of writing.

This is not just a play about people but about the absurd situations misconception and misdirection can propel them into.

A hit, hit, hit all the way. You will laugh time and time again. Not just because it’s funny, but because it is true.

Time and Time Again runs at the Mill at Sonning until January 9. Box Office: 01189 698 000.

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