That '70s show: Absurd Person Singular | The Joseph Planta Commentary |

That '70s show: Absurd Person Singluar

BY JOSEPH PLANTA

Friday, 17 February 2006

VANCOUVER - Absurd Person Singular by Alan Ayckbourn is at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage until 05 March 2006. Though the comedy seems formulaic and trite, it is often funny. Then again, the play's been around since the 1970s, when it's also set.

You meet three couples who straddle the classes. Overreaching and ambitious, Leslie Jones and Tom Scholte play Jane and Sidney Hopcroft, who want to impress their friends with their humble but oh so tidy home. Jones is charming, and Scholte plays frenetic as well as John Cleese as Basil Fawlty. The Brewster-Wright's, a haughtier duo, are played by Allan Gray and Janet Wright. Wright steals the show with forthright looks of disdain and scorn. Affecting such airs is made easier when clutching a glass of gin, which she does with great élan. The third couple, the Jackson's, a younger twosome, are played by Naomi Wright and Bob Frazer. Wright's range in this play is remarkable. She's largely silent in the second act, where she's featured most prominently, but is certainly a presence.

The sets by Ted Roberts are practical and apt in how they embody traditional Britain with its sitting rooms and without its central heating. The first set, the Hopcroft's kitchen is awfully piercing to the senses, satirising the ugly ergonomics of the 1970s in its tackiness and colour.

In a letter to a friend in 1974, Joseph Alsop begins: "I have begun to think that the '70s are the very worse years since the history of life began on earth." Those of us who came after the 1970s wonder if that's true, but you do get a good sense of them in Absurd Person Singular, wrapped up in a funny and ribald, though charming package of hysterics and dialogue.

Absurd Person Singular is at the Stanley until March 5, 2006, Tuesdays to Sundays, $27-50, with discounts for students, seniors, and groups. For more information hit up http://www.artsclub.com.

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