{"id":7906,"date":"2010-12-10T12:43:53","date_gmt":"2010-12-10T12:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=7906"},"modified":"2015-05-18T14:21:45","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T14:21:45","slug":"theatre-review-alan-ayckbourns-seasons-greetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=7906","title":{"rendered":"THEATRE REVIEW: Alan Ayckbourn&#8217;s &#8216;Seasons Greetings&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/seasons-greetings.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7908\" src=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/seasons-greetings.jpeg\" alt=\"season's greetings\" width=\"620\" height=\"461\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/seasons-greetings.jpeg 620w, https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/seasons-greetings-300x223.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n<p>LONDON \u2013 Alan Ayckbourn\u2019s parochial English comedy Season\u2019s Greetings seeks to burst the illusion of happy families at Christmastime but the set-up and characters are so contrived that it runs like a clock that needs winding.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing is introduced without leading inexorably to its clunky pay-off. The noisy toy wrapped with the other presents under the tree will go off at the most inopportune time; the all-purpose remote control will trigger loud music in the middle of the night; the amateur puppet show will collapse.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the same with the characters: the ageing virgin sister will wail; the drunken husband with the pregnant wife will have his comeuppance; the sister-in-law who drinks too much will drop the Christmas mouse; the comely hostess will want to bonk her sister\u2019s handsome young visitor; and the mad uncle with the gun will shoot somebody.<\/p>\n<p>The players are all game but the play\u2019s predictability soon becomes wearing, the ensuing chaos phoney and the laughter forced.<\/p>\n<p>Venue: National Theatre, runs through March 13; Cast: Neil Stuke, Catherine Tate, Jenna Russell, David Troughton, Mark Gatiss, Nicola Walker, Marc Wootton, Katherine Parkinson, Oliver Chris; Playwright: Alan Ayckbourn; Director: Marianne Elliott; Set designer: Rae Smith; Lighting designer: Bruno Poet; Music: Stephen Warbeck; Sound designer: Ian Dickinson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 Alan Ayckbourn\u2019s parochial English comedy Season\u2019s Greetings seeks to burst the illusion of happy families at Christmastime but the set-up and characters are so contrived that it runs like a clock that needs winding. Nothing &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=7906\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,16],"tags":[3961,3962,898],"class_list":["post-7906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-theatre","tag-seasons-greetings","tag-alan-ayckbourne","tag-national-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7906"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7909,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7906\/revisions\/7909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}