Table Manners

Questors Theatre

Playing until 19th July 2025

Book tickets

Photo credit: Robert Vass and David Carter

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Table Manners is one of three stand-alone plays, known as The Norman Conquests, set in the same house over a Saturday evening to Monday morning. In this part of the trilogy, an account of the weekend as seen in the dining room plays out. Events in the living room and garden are chronicled in Living Together and Round and Round the Garden.

We don’t see the bedridden owner of the house, Annie’s mother who she lives with and cares for. But she is why Annie’s brother Reg and his wife Sarah are staying so that Annie can have a weekend away – to anywhere it seems.

Annie (Nate Clarke) is in a suspended state when Sarah arrives and doesn’t appear to be ready for the holiday – or company – she’s yearning for.

No-nonsense Sarah (Mia Biagio) is confused by this as she sets to work, editing the positions of vases, picture frames or whatever is in her path. Amid the bustle, Annie reveals where she is going – and potentially more surprisingly, the identity of who with. Her sister Ruth’s husband Norman.

And there begins a family gathering no-one has prepared for, deftly played and propelled by the wired Sarah. She puts matters to rights as she thinks fit, presiding over lettuce, placemats, polished silver and seating for every ensuing, fractious meal in her in-laws’ home.

Annie’s buttoned-up neighbour Tom (Wesley Lloyd) is a regular visitor with a taste for the house or Annie or even the home-brewed wine. He gets drawn-in, trying to avoid - until he doesn’t avoid - direct conflict.

Reg (Jacob Dalton) behaves like a pent-up guest in his childhood home. He's as immaculate in appearance as his wife, only hungrier and more bored, keen for sparring opportunities during the enforced extended stay.

When illicit-lover-to-be Norman (Herman Svartling Stolpe) does appear, the tempo switches. He defends himself through alternating relaxed and effusive cheerfulness. He wants to share his zeal for happiness – and himself – and maybe not just with Annie.

His wife Ruth (Filipa Maia) is summonsed away from her busy job to the family crisis. She is used to straight-talking – and Norman – and has plenty to say about what she finds.          

Throughout, the muted atmosphere of the family dining room furniture, pride of a previous generation, clashes like a ghost with the soundtrack and flouncy or belted 70s attire of the siblings and partners. 

This, no more so than when sisters-in-law Ruth and Sarah have their own maxi-dressed contretemps. Swishing angrily, they flounce and belt out their gripes amongst the genteel deco. Apart from outmoded Tom of course, who looks ready to reside in one of the club chairs forever.

Whether Norman makes a love match or not, the graduating class of the Advanced Performance Course and guest Wesley Lloyd at community theatre delivers on Ayckbourn’s brand of serious comedy in this production directed by Richard Gallagher. Tensions are palpable in this unplanned family gathering with 70s suburban throwback.

Creatives

Director: Richard Gallagher

Associate director: Pam Redrup

Lighting designer: John Green

Costume designer: Sarah Andrews

Sound designer: Jane Arnold-Forster

Props: Claudia Kees

Set Designer: Mobolaji Babalola