The Bed Before Yesterday

Written by Ben (Aldwych Farces) Travers, directed by Pat Stroud for Melville Theatre Company. I must say I am most surprised that, as I write, GtO has not (yet) posted a review of this play. After my most pleasant experience at Harbour earlier this week, I was expecting to see another farce with which to compare it. However, this was not to be. Described in the program as 'a classic English comedy', I would classify this as a 'realist' light drama. If the writer meant it to be a comedy, this cast certainly weren't playing it for laughs. One thing is for sure - a farce it is not. The play is set in 1930s London. On the surface, it is about the sexual awakening of a rich, feisty but naive middle-aged woman and as such has a lot of comic potential. Having said that, it is also about family loyalties, rape in marriage, promiscuity and the many and varying degrees of prostitution. If these issues were considered funny in the 1930s, they are no longer and nor should they be. There were some attempts at making the story a bit more relevant to today, but of course you can only go so far with this. Viewed as a piece of 'classic' theatre without any real relevance to modern life however, I thought it was generally well-designed and well-performed. It's on for two more nights - and the bar stays open afterwards!