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March 11-14, Wednesday-Saturday 5:30pm and Saturday 1pm
Teatro Santa Ana, Biblioteca, Relox 50a
$385 https://labibliotecapublica.org/taquillaeventos/
Laughter is the key!
There are moments in history when the world seems to tilt a little too far toward the grim. It seems that we are living in one of those moments now. During the Great Depression, when daily life was shadowed by economic hardship and uncertainty, audiences flocked to the cinema for sparkling comedies and musicals — The world outside might have been bleak, but inside the theatre Fred Astaire was dancing, screwball lovers were arguing at high speed, and for two glorious hours the clouds lifted.
Which is why laughter matters. I knew Relatively Speaking was that kind of play when I found myself alone at three o'clock in the morning, reading the script and laughing out loud. Not smiling. Not politely appreciating a clever line. Actually laughing. At three in the morning. Alone. That's usually a good sign.
When Relatively Speaking opened in London's West End in 1967 at the Duke of York's Theatre, it changed the life of its author, Alan Ayckbourn. Critics hailed the play as “an elegant construct…a delightful Fabergé egg of a play” (The Times) and praised Ayckbourn as “as funny as any of the classic comedy writers” (The Guardian). It was his first major hit and the beginning of a remarkable career that would eventually produce more than eighty plays and establish him as one of Britain's most beloved comic dramatists.
And it's easy to see why.
Relatively Speaking is a wickedly funny British farce in which good manners, bad timing, and spectacularly wrong assumptions collide. A polite weekend visit detonates into comic mayhem as everyone arrives armed with absolute certainty and almost no actual information. Lovers are mistaken for spouses, parents for paramours, and every attempt to “clear things up” makes the situation gloriously worse. With razor-sharp dialogue and clockwork precision, the play turns embarrassment, secrecy, and social niceties into high comedy. Clever, breathless, and laugh-out-loud funny, Relatively Speaking is a masterclass in how utterly disastrous good intentions can be.
So if the world outside feels a little too serious just now, come spend an evening with Alan Ayckbourn. Bring your worries with you if you must. But be warned: they may not survive the evening.
Relatively Speaking, directed by Phoebe Greyson and starring Marilyn Bullivant, Rick Davey, Gina Giampaulo and Blu McKelvain, plays at the Santa Ana Theater, Relox 50, Centro, March 11th through the 14th, 5:30 each evening, with a Matinee on Saturday the 14th at 1:00pm. Tickets are $385 available online at https://labibliotecapublica.org/taquillaeventos/ and $350 cash at the Santa Ana box office from 12-5pm Tuesday through Saturday and one hour before each show.
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