Norman Conquest - Table Manners Tickets

The Old Vic Theatre is the home of Alan Ayckbourn’s comic masterpiece The Norman Conquests, featuring three plays: Table Manners, Living Together and Round and Round the Garden. The Old Vic will be converted into an ‘in-the-round’ performance space to bring a unique atmosphere to the auditorium and displays the play as it was intended. All of this has been supported by the CQS, the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation and the global alternative asset management group. Michael Hintze leads the CQS with his wife Dorothy, both of whom are major supporters of the arts.

Table Manners is one of the three plays that encompass The Norman Conquests. All three concern a family staying in an English Country house. This includes Norman (Stephen Mangan), who believes that he must shower women with love to make them happy. He seduces his sister-in-law Annie (Jessica Hynes), is charming to his brother-in-law’s wife, Sarah, and chats up his wife Ruth (Amelia Bullmore), all across one weekend of lude acts that involve fondling each other along with eating and drinking. In Table Manners, it is the events of the weekend as seen from the dining room. Reg is very hungry but having no luck finding food even though it has been thrown at him by Sarah, who is part of a scandal concocted by Annie, who has lost her faith in men, including Tom, who knocks down Norman, who has no luck with love as a result of Ruth, who loses her patience and her glasses.

All three plays can be enjoyed together as part of a trilogy or as independent pieces of theatre. Together they are a hilarious patchwork of a weekend in which a family is frustrated with secrets and frustrations aching to be released.

Alan Ayckbourne’s play appears on a London stage for the first time in 34 years with director Matthew Warchus, whose previous credits include Speed-the-Ploe, God the Carnage and The Lord of the Rings. The cast includes Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes, Stephen Mangan, Ben Miles, Paul Ritter and Amanda Root. Ayckbourne’s previous hits include Absurd Person Singular, recently brought back in the West End along with Just Between Ourselves, A Chorus of Disapproval, Woman in Mind and House & Garden. In total he has written 70 full length plays which have been translated into 34 different languages worldwide. As a result he is one of Britain’s favourite and most prolific playwrights.

Table Manners is showing at The Old Vic Theatre from Thursday 11th September 2008 to Saturday 20th December 2008.