STAGED in tandem with Round And Round The Garden - Alan Ayckbourn's second play from the Norman Conquests trilogy - Living Together explores the same six characters over the same summer weekend, with a slight time difference and in the house rather than the garden.
Each play has "a distinct atmosphere of its own", according to Ayckbourn, but to see both productions is to appreciate and marvel at the dramatic and technical skills involved in the connections.
Peter Hamilton Dyer as the bumbling but surprisingly sexually successful Norman relishes the role, as does Alan Blyton as the boardgame-inventing Reg. His prickly wife Sarah is superbly played by Alison McKenna with a mix of righteous indignation and suppressed passion.
Anthony Washington as the dithering Tom controls the character on the cusp of caricature.
Catrin Aaron as the confused but yearning Annie plays the part with a quality redolent of Cordelia from Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.
Caron Pascoe as Norman's long-suffering wife Ruth enjoys the pivotal role of somehow holding together the suburban mayhem.
Both plays run until June 25.
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