If I were you

Alan Ayckbourn and the Stephen Joseph Theatre are a huge plus to living in Scarborough.
Alan has made his plays to be produced in his theatre in the round a world renowned phenomena. They end up in the West End and on Broadway. They are translated and produced in 35 different languages and we can see them in an afternoon, between lunch and supper, for under a tenner!

We have been to see his 70th play today "If I were you" - once again billed as "a comedy" but whilst it did make me laugh it also made me want to cry. The Daily Telegraph described it as "an ingenious and touching game of double pretence". In act one Ayckbourn takes us through the various relationships of a contemporary family consisting of husband, wife, teenage son, recently married daughter with son in law and new baby. Off set are husband's mistress, and fellow workers at a local furniture store. Ayckbourn is merciless in his presentation of a cynical and pessimistic view of relations between the sexes and the generations and a thoroughly depressing slant on marriage and family life. In act two he suggests we can only begin to understand by seeing the world through the other person's eyes. The same scenario is played out with wife behaving as husband and husband as wife. It's very clever and brilliantly acted but I am left worried by a philosophy of life not exactly positive. It seems life is a bloody farce and we can only get through it by coping mechanisms and playing games.

Ayckbourn takes a dim view of men in general and husbands in particular. He is definitely for the ladies and wishes men were more like them. As for marriage the programme notes spell out his view as "I think a big piece of us dies in marriage. The marriages I know are either dull or fraught." If these are really his views and experience then we are being invited to be entertained and to laugh at the state of a sick man's soul.