Triple helping of Ayckbourn is a real treat

The Norman Conquests (Festival Theatre, Chichester) Verdict: It’s a hoot

ALAN AYCKBOURN’S comic trilogy from 1973 features the most unlikely sex magnet in all of theatre. With the nerdish name of Norman, he’s a randy librarian kitted out in bobble hat, dirty mac and riotous beard.

He’s an extraordinary comic creation and, in the hands of rising star Trystan Gravelle, he has the look of a discombobulated badger hoping to escape a cull.

But with Norman’s efforts to have his way with his wife, her sister — and his sister-in-law — over the course of a long weekend in the country stretched to three plays, running over six hours, I did begin to wonder if you can have too much of a good thing.

In terms of plotting, the plays are works of interlocking genius on a par with Fawlty Towers. Even though the sexual politics have changed (especially in the Trilogy: Gravelle as Norman kitchen), the wit and repartee have stood the test of time. The cast has a hoot and ensures all three pieces run like clockwork as they unpick the madness of their marriages.

Gravelle sets the pace, milking his seductive Welsh accent and puppy-dog eyes as shabby sexual trickster Norman. But it’s very much a team show.

Jonathan Broadbent, a henpecked surveyor condemned to wear golf slacks, is pitched against Sarah Hadland as his marvellously shrill, tactless, manipulative wife.

Hattie Ladbury adds style as Norman’s myopic missus. And John Hollingworth is a gormlessly amusing vet and suitor for Annie, the sister who stayed home to look after mother. In that role, Jemima Rooper is left to tear her hair in desperation — with only Norman offering any prospect of escape.

Blanche McIntyre’s production is enormously assured on Simon Higlett’s clever design, which seats the audience around a small island on which a country home is ringed with grass and brambles.

You can see all three plays in a day or on separate nights. If I had to see just one, I’d go for Living Together, the most tightly wrought of these vintage examples of sexual shenanigans.