Comedy at dinner table (From Gazette Series)

Comedy at dinner table

TABLE Manners, the classic comedy by Alan Ayckbourn, is set to serve up life in a strife-torn family weekend at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham from Tuesday, January 24 to Saturday, January 28.

All the action of this wonderfully funny comedy takes place around mealtimes in a dining room. As many of us are still recovering from the trauma of spending Christmas with members of the extended family, Table Manners provides as entertaining a picture as has ever been portrayed of dysfunctional families.

Table Manners is being presented in Cheltenham by Ian Dickens Productions Ltd - it stars Robert Duncan (Drop the Dead Donkey), Sabina Franklyn (Keep it in the Family and Dr Who), West End actress Anita Graham and Ian Dickens Productions favourites David Callister and Christopher Hackett.

Alan Ayckbourn is one of Britain's foremost contemporary playwrights, whose enormous volume of work includes some of the most popular plays ever written. Table Manners is part of a comedy trilogy under the general heading The Norman Conquests.

In Ayckbourn's classic farce Annie has arranged a weekend away with Norman but they don't plan on seeing much more than their hotel room. They quickly find out that planning dirty weekends very rarely goes the way it should as Norman, who is married to Annie's sister Ruth, soon discovers.

When Annie's control freak sister-in-law Sarah learns of their assignation she sets about to ruin their rendezvous and endeavours to set Annie up with a more suitable suitor, with the help of well-meaning friends and relations.

Ian Dickens Productions Ltd has toured the country for over ten years with such productions as Don't Dress for Dinner, Out of Order, Caught in the Net and Out of Order. Directed by Ian Dickens, this riotously funny comedy promises audiences an evening of quality entertainment.

There's an opportunity to meet the cast, and ask questions over tea and biscuits, after the matinee on Thursday, January 26 - tickets for this theatre taster cost a nominal price and booking is required.

All tickets can be booked from the Everyman Theatre box office or by visiting www.everymantheatre.org.uk