The Palace Theatre, Redditch - 4th to 7th May 2011

Alan Ayckbourn's

"How the Other Half Loves"

Directed by Pablo Raybould

3 bickering couples, 2 disastrous dinner parties, 1 very sticky affair.

Two houses and three couples share the same stage in this dazzlingly funny comedy classic where ill-informed and misinformed mischievous gossip inevitably leads to matrimonial strife at what should have been a convivial evening dinner party of friends.

The matrimonial mix-up begins when two married people who are having an affair with each other need to invent a quick alibi to cover up a late-night out together for their spouses. The alibi goes wrong and a third, innocent couple become increasingly involved as the well meaning efforts to straighten out their perceived problems by one of the adulterers' oblivious spouses causes chaos. As the plot thickens, the lives of the three couples become inextricably tangled in a series of mind-boggling misunderstandings. The showpiece of the play is the simultaneous dinner party, in which the hapless innocents are the guests at both houses - at the same time!

A phenomenal success in 1970 when it transferred to the Lyric Theatre, London the production ran for 869 performances and the play has enjoyed many successful productions and revivals since.