Absent Friends – OSO Arts Centre
When you think of an Alan Ayckbourn play, a tragi-comedy set at a tea party, at a fringe venue overlooking a pond, you set yourself up for a lovely evening of theatre. And the theatre was indeed lovely, a beautiful exterior with an intimate performance space, but the venue is about the only thing that the show got right.
Diana (Polly Smith) invites friends over for a tea party, after their long-lost friend, Colin Thomas Willshire), is supposedly grieving the death of his fiance. Tension is evident between and within the couples; Evelyn (Liv Koplick) has been sleeping with Diana’s husband, Paul (Eoin Lynch). Evelyn’s husband, John (Kieran Seabrook-France) is aware of this but doesn’t say anything; he is in business with Paul. Marge (Bridget Lambert) unsuccessfully attempts to maintain t...
