

Joking Apart and Other Plays
Alan Ayckbourn
Another marvelous portrait of middle class, middle aged life by this skillful portrayer of manners and morals.
Charming, naturally successful in everything, Anthea and Richard almost unconsciously but ruthlessly dominate the lives of those with whom they are associated in business or as neighbors.
Over twelve years Sven, Richard's partner, is virtually nudged out of the firm Brian tries, ineffectually, through a series of girl friends to replace his love, Anthea Hugh, a local vicar, falls hopelessly for Anthea Hugh's wife is driven to drugs by Anthea and Richard's kindness.
The play ends with Anthea's daughter, Debbie, awaiting the guests for her eighteenth birthday party with Brian making one last attempt for an Anthea substitute.
"Time has always been a key component in Alan Ayckbourn's comedies, but usually in the form of amazing tricks with simultaneity and compression. In his twenty-first play, Ayckbourn reverses the procedure with an action spanning 12 years, which shows time to be no laughing matter."
— The Times
Alan Ayckbourn on Growing As a Dramatist
Joking Apart is a British comedy play written by Alan Ayckbourn and published by Samuel French in London (1979).
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Restrictions: Major Markets Only (US) / Standard Restriction (UK)
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