2002

November

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Round and Round The Garden

by Alan Ayckbourn

Directed by Roland Garrad

	Cast
	Annie	Sue Duffy
	Tom	Roland Garrad
	Norman	Bob Marden
	Reg	Jim Saphin
	Sarah	Carol Ardley
	Ruth	Libby Bellhouse







	The play takes place in the garden of a Victorian cottage.

Synopsis

"Round and Round The Garden" is the last in a trilogy of plays by Alan Ayckbourn which go under the collective title of "The Norman Conquests". The other two, "Table Manners" and "Living Together" were performed by the Players in November 1991 and April 1994 respectively. Each of the plays can be performed as a separate entity. They are not consecutive, but all occur during a single weekend in the same house.

In this play, Sarah's desperate attempts to have a nice civilised week-end culminate, not surprisingly, in disaster. Ruth, Norman's wife, is summoned but Norman still contrives to cause havoc, involving finally, all three women. Matters are not helped by such events as the slow thinking Tom mistaking Ruth's intentions during a conversation they have together. Eventually the horrific week-end draws to a close. The four visitors depart, but even at the last moment Norman manages - deliberately or not - to wreck all plans by driving his car into Reg's. Back they all troop, now facing having to stay. Norman finds himself spurned by all three women, and is left protesting with injured innocence that he only meant to make everyone happy.