Seeing funny side of death and relationships

THE Henley Players’ next production is a dark comedy about death and relationships.

First performed in the West End 50 years ago, Alan Ayckbourn’s Absent Friends looks at what happens when long-term acquaintances get together under awkward circumstances.

Diana has invited Colin, an old friend of her husband, Paul, over for tea and a catch-up.

Colin’s fiancée has recently drowned, so Diana has arranged for other pals, John and Gordon, to come along and help provide
sympathy.

However, Gordon is ill so sends his wife, Marge. John has brought his wife, Evelyn, and baby along while Marge is broody and has recently taken to mothering
Gordon.

When Colin arrives, he turns out to be the most cheerful of the bunch…

Director Mark Wilkin says: “Colin is the catalyst for what happens, although he doesn’t appear until near the end of the first half.

“He has been invited to Diana and Paul’s house for a tea party. He has lost his fiancée and the chaps aren’t at all happy about having to talk about death — on the face of it, not a very funny scenario.

“Actually, it is, as you would expect from Alan Ayckbourn, especially from this period of his writing, the mid-Seventies.

“It reached the West End in 1975 and was the fifth of his plays that went running consecutively in the West End.

“Looking at it from our perspective these days, when most of the big productions in the West End are musicals, it’s quite astonishing.”

Mark has had a long association with Ayckbourn, who is now 85.

Just after lockdown, he and his wife went to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough to see Ayckbourn’s play The Girl Next Door.

“It was actually set in lockdown,” he says. “There were two gardens, side by side, and there was this guy who was on gardening leave, effectively because of lockdown, staying with his sister.

“He goes through the hedge into the neighbour’s garden and finds himself in the Blitz in 1942.

“Everything that Ayckbourn does surprises you and he has actually written six plays since then. He’s absolutely prolific and just can’t stop. There’s a new one this year. That’s astonishing.

“Most of his plays have premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, as I think he lives in
Scarborough.

“I find it quite interesting as a director that the theatre is designed to be in the round.

“So when he was writing all these plays, he had to think about a play that was going to be produced in the round as well as on a conventional stage.

“This play would work equally well in either because it’s in a single setting and it all takes place in one afternoon.

“In terms of the complexity of the play, it’s relatively simple. Finding the humour is easy but there are hidden layers which we’ve been finding during rehearsal and as a result we’re all having lots of fun.

“We’re still laughing at different aspects of the play, even though we’ve been in rehearsal for quite some time.

“It is going splendidly well and I couldn’t have asked for a better cast.”

The first production that Mark directed was Ayckbourn’s 1969 play, Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations. “It was about 30 years ago when I had an idea that I’d like to direct,” he recalls.

“I live in Benson and I thought it would be a good idea to get kids involved with the Benson Players, as they were then.

“I picked Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations because it had a flexible cast and we thought we could get a cast up to 20 maybe.

“In the end I had, I think, 33 kids turn up for audition, two or three of whom wanted to help backstage.

“I managed to cast the rest of them because there were lots of crowd scenes.

“I have to say the kids were brilliant to direct, much easier to direct than some of my adult casts.”

More recently, Mark directed the Henley Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society’s production of Death and the Maiden at the HAODS Studio and the Sinodun Players in The Invisible Man at the Corn Exchange in Wallingford.

“This is the first time I’ve directed a production at the Kenton, which is great,” he says. “It’s a lovely theatre.

“I do tread the boards as well and I’ve been on stage in plays and musicals many times but this is one on the bucket list ticked off.”

Colin is played by Tom Rawlinson, 32, who works in publishing and divides his time between London and Twyford, where his partner lives. He is new to the Henley Players.

“I saw their production of Twelfth Night in October and thought it was great,” he says.

“I thought they were all so good and came together so well as a cast and it looked really fun with a great group of people.

“I haven’t acted since I was at university. I went up to the Fringe and was in probably quite a terrible play but I enjoyed it at the time.

“It has taken a bit of time to get back into acting but it’s a huge amount of fun and everyone’s so talented in their own different ways exploring their characters.

“It’s great to be with people who are so enthusiastic about it.

“Mark is so knowledgeable too. He really gets it and is really helpful and insightful. I hope that comes through in the performance.

“My part is kind of weird because I get to watch them all because most of them are on stage for about 40 minutes before I go on.

“I’ve seen that bit develop, getting better and quicker and sharper, which has been lovely.

“It is quite weird to come on for the last 15 minutes of the first act. There is a quite dramatic moment just before I come on and it’s all there, having been bubbling up away for the first 40 minutes.

“Colin is a catalyst. He comes in and just through being an insufferably cheery man, despite having just lost his partner, he kind of brings out the worst in all of them.

“It is a quite dark play in lots of ways but it’s a lot of fun. I think it’s going to be really good and people are going to have a great time watching it. They will laugh but there are sad moments, so they’ll go through all the emotions. It is a very good story.”

The cast comprises Tom Rawlinson as Colin, Lucy Weeks as Diana, Tim Harling as Paul, Kevin Goodfellow as John, Siggy Lee as Evelyn and Rowenna McMenamin as Marge.

• The Henley Players present Absent Friends at the Kenton Theatre in New Street, Henley, from Wednesday to Saturday, March 26 to 29 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £20 adults (£19 Friends/
Keepers) for the Wednesday and Thursday and £22 for the Friday and Saturday. There is also a matinée performance on the Saturday (2.30pm), which is “pay what you like” with a minimum of £5. For more information, call the box office on (01491) 525050 or visit thekenton.org.uk