How the Other Half Loves is the play that established Alan Ayckbourn’s name as a writer of farce. Frank and Fiona, a posh, sophisticated couple, encounter problems in their marriage when Fiona has a fling with Bob, a handsome junior at Frank’s firm. Bob’s wife, Teresa, suspects Bob of infidelity and starts to investigate his social life. An innocent couple, William and Mary, are drawn into the muddle thanks to a series of misunderstandings. The centrepiece of the elaborate plot is a pair of dinner parties on successive nights performed simultaneously on a single set.

Roger Allam is as cuddly as Paddington and as caustic as Peter Cook

Roger Allam is as cuddly as Paddington and as caustic as Peter Cook

The complications are enjoyable to watch because you have to keep adjusting the pieces in your mind to make it all fit together. Class snobbery permeates the script, and Ayckbourn assumes that the viewers will assent to his tabulation of social desirability. He loves Frank and Fiona who are a rich and elegant in their mid-sixties. He admires the energy and ambition of the middle-class youngsters, Bob and Teresa. And he despises the crass, semi-literate dimwits, William and Mary, whose names happen to be those of a famous English king and queen. That’s an in-joke just for the audience’s benefit, and part........

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