Slapstick at its best

4:39pm Friday 11th January 2008

MANY people spend a lot of time in the kitchen at parties.

That is certainly true of the Alan Ayckbourn classic dark comedy Absurd Person Singular where all the action takes place in three kitchens.

Set in the early 1970s, the action takes place on a trilogy of Christmas Eve's - and charts the rise and rise of super-efficient Sidney (David Bamber) and the ultra-houseproud Jane (Jane Horrocks), who thinks nothing of giving Sidney a wipe down with a duster - even if she has just cleaned the furniture with it.

Squeaky-clean Jane is almost as bubbly as the Ab Fab character Bubble (played by Jane Horrocks), and side and is desperate to help boring Sidney make a good impression on his guests - bank manager Ronald (David Horovitch), his extremely snooty wife Marion (Jenny Seagrove), the smarmy, womanising architect Geoffrey (John Gordon-Sinclair) and his neurotic wife Eva (Lia Williams).

The first act is dedicated to Jane and Sidney whose quest to impress backfires as Jane squirts soda water on Ronald's trousers.

One year later and unhappy Eva wants to die. She tries to throw herself out of her kitchen window but Geoffrey accidentally saves her.

She puts her head in the gas oven - but as she is about to turn on the gas Jane enters, takes one look at the oven and sets about cleaning it.

There is hilarious chaos as Sidney unblocks the sink full of sleeping pills, Ronald electrocutes himself repairing the light flex Eva tried to hang herself from and Marion cheers herself up drinking a bottle of gin.

The action borders on the slapstick at times and Eva's performance is pure pantomime as she is lifted, dropped, flopped and dumped without uttering a word until the very end when she leads the cast in a chorus of Ten Green Bottles.

The third and final act takes place in the icy cold kitchen of Ronald and Marion one year later, Marion has taken to drink (gin) Eva is a model of efficiency, Geoffrey went broke due to major problem with the flats he designed. The ever-jolly - now well-heeled -Sidney and Jane enter and set about cheering the other two couples up.

Absurd Person Singular is perfection when it comes to people observation, it is a comic masterpiece littered with laughs, pathos and down to earth realism. Absurd Person Singular is a must.

Absurd Person Singular, Garrick Theatre, Charing Cross Road. Box Office 0870 890 1104. Nearest Tube: Leicester Square.

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