Roger Allam and Dorothy Atkinson in How the Other Half Loves [Manuel Harlan]

ALAN Ayckbourn’s 1969 domestic farce How the Other Half Loves is given an immersive in-the-round staging by Phillip Breen. Three couples become embroiled in each other’s lives when bored housewife Fiona Foster (Dorothy Atkinson) tries to hide her affair with the brash Bob Phillips (Rowan Polonski), an employee of her mansplaining husband, Frank (Roger Allam).

Fiona uses the timid Mary Featherstone (Laura Elsworthy) as an alibi for a late night out, claiming she was counselling her about her marriage to William (Adam Gillen). To throw Frank off the scent, Fiona invites the Featherstones to dinner, while Bob’s long-suffering wife Teresa (Ayesha Antoine), left to single-handedly cook, clean and raise their baby, does the same.

The centrepiece of the drama is two dinners on consecutive nights, presented simultaneously to great comic effect.

Rob Howell’s set and costumes cleverly use the period detail to convey the couples’ class and social anxieties, down to their choice of furnishings and the contrasting doorbell chimes.

Allam provides much of the sitcom humour. Frank is the sort of man who would have been ubiquitous in 1969, but his entitlement and managerial authority is still recognisable today.

Ayckbourn’s writing continues to resonate, with the men coming off worst; even the socially awkward, initially sympathetic William reveals a nasty, controlling side.

Breen’s well-paced direction ensures the two-and-a-half-hour running time never lags. The cast is credible, sometimes cringingly so.

I prefer Abigail’s Party, Mike Leigh’s take on marital discord (also enjoying a revival), but How the Other Half Loves equally succeeds in mining both comedy and bite from the subject.

Until September 19
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