A cracking evening of Ayckbourn

Intimate Exchanges - 'A Gardener in Love'

Alan Ayckbourn

The Progress Theatre, Reading (24/04/10)

Intimate Exchanges is a remarkable piece of drama with a series of comic scenes leading to a total of 16 different possible endings. In this play, Ayckbourn highlights how the minor decisions we make in our lives can have much greater consequences. The Progress Theatre chose to perform two different situations; 'A Gardener in Love' and 'The Self-Improving Woman' and although I only saw the first of the two, I've no doubt they were both equally brilliant.

'A Gardener in Love' focuses on Mrs Celia Teasdale, stuck with an inattentive, ungrateful husband whilst being relentlessly pursued by her young gardener. It is a comic tale, despite the dark undertones, with hilarious dialogue and lively, likeable characters.

Two actors took on the four roles in this production and they certainly pulled it off! Tonya Walton was fabulously on form as the neurotic, self-conscious middle-aged woman Celia, as well as the grumpy, young girl Sylvie Bell. She effortlessly slipped in and out of the two characters that were polar opposites of one another. Her role as Celia demanded a batch of ill-timed hiccups and eating a lot of sandwiches amongst other things, all of which she handled wonderfully, as well as creating comedy in all the right moments.

Dan Clarke was both Celia's husband and the eponymous gardener in love, Lionel Hepplewick. Clarke was exceptional in both roles, creating a distinct 20 year age gap between his two characters that led to many audience members not recognising that he was the same person. His role as Toby Teasdale was incredibly funny and he must be commended for an amazingly well-delivered rant on ten things that can drive a man to drink! Clarke had the audience laughing for the majority of his time onstage as Toby - the frustrated, middle-class character was truly entertaining to watch.

With just two actors performing there were inevitably some quick costume changes, but they were swift and effective (except for the odd forgivable pause). The costume itself included a couple of oddly obvious wigs but even they seemed to suit the actors well - Walton's big hair was a great compliment to Sylvie's girl-with-an-attitude character. However, the real quality came from the acting as both Walton and Clarke proved they had the ability to carry off diverse characters, living up to all the demands of an unusual and challenging play.

It was obvious that director Geoff Dallimore had managed to pick out the best of Ayckbourn's comedy, and it shone through the two actors. Progress Theatre's version of Intimate Exchanges was a great evening's entertainment and, depsite a somewhat saddening ending, the show was full of enough laughs to send you home with a smile. I can't urge you enough to go and see a show at the Progress, they always surprise and haven't disappointed me yet.

Please comment if you have anything to add to this review of 'Intimate Exchanges'.