How to take revenge on a dad who’s bad

FOR an accomplished, if slightly bloodless, tale of comeuppance, Bath’s admirable Ustinov is staging The Open House by American playwright Will Eno.

The first section of this story gives us a middle- class family bullied by their father (Greg Hicks, right), who has had a stroke and is confined to a wheelchair.

All is bleak, the claustrophobic living room dominated by tan and beige fabrics. The father is a misery: splenetic, sour, foul to not only his wife ( Teresa Banham), but also his visiting adult children. Also present is a useless brother-in-law (Crispin Letts, no relation). Even the dog is sad — and legs it.

You watch and think ‘ hmm, this is decently acted but the old man is implausibly acidic’. With Michael Boyd directing, the show is perfectly skilful, even if Mr Hicks’s American accent needs work. But why are we here? Surely something must happen to justify it.

Happen it does, when the family members leave and fresh characters (played by the same actors) arrive. The negativity of the house is overthrown. Dashes of colour are introduced. There are laughs. The father’s tyranny is broken! This may read a little elusive, but to explain the plot more would spoil the show.

Mr Eno is a neat writer, with his understated cleverness and symmetry, and it is daring of him to exact revenge on a person in a wheelchair. But while one can admire the play, it is hard to adore it because the characters are so artificial. The most convincing figure is the dog, of whom we should see more.