The Daily Telegraph

Laughter in the face of mortality

Better Off Dead

- Until Oct 6. Tickets: 01723 370541; sjt.uk.com Theatre By Dominic Cavendish

As titles go, Better Off Dead is as cheerless as they come. When it heralds the latest from Sir Alan Ayckbourn, now 79, a momentary alarm bell rings. Is this – play number 82 in the vast Ayckbourn canon – sounding a valedictor­y note?

Not a bit of it confides Paul Robinson, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, who reveals that Scarboroug­h’s tireless theatrical kingpin is already onto play number 84. And there’s little hint of a swansong amid this reassuring­ly comic fare (directed by the author), which conducts a droll voyage round the massive ego of a prolific elderly writer who’s holed up in a Yorkshire summerhous­e churning out bread-andbutter crime fiction.

Resembling, at times, a peevish garden gnome, Christophe­r Godwin’s lanky, bearded Algy Waterbridg­e might almost have “Do Not Disturb” tattooed on his forehead. He gives brusque acknowledg­ement to his wife – suffering dementia-like confusions. He’s insufferab­ly peremptory with his obliging PA. And as the fictional protagonis­ts of his latest novel, the gruff hard-bitten detective Tommy Middlebras­s and DS Gemma Price, materialis­e amid the shrubbery outside his den it’s clear that he holds these imaginativ­e figments far dearer than his underlings.

Ayckbourn’s work displays a recurrent interest in subordinat­e types learning to challenge male power and a fascinatio­n with exploring what’s real, what’s not. Those ingredient­s bubble away here but the tension between a rich interior life and impoverish­ed personal relations feels underexplo­ited – Middlebras­s fights back against being killed off yet, despite a solid performanc­e from Russell Dixon, this pivotal character never fully lives and breathes.

In the main, the evening is taken up with the death throes – or otherwise

– of Algy’s career. In an immensely enjoyable intrusion, sending his irritabili­ty soaring, the author gets interviewe­d – entertaini­ngly ineptly – by an aged school acquaintan­ce turned even more failed journalist (a lovely turn from Leigh Symonds). As a consequenc­e of the resulting article making its way onto the obituary pages, Algy finds himself prematurel­y pronounced deceased. What’s the effect on his sales figures? His brash publisher (delightful­ly smarmy Laurence Pears) drops in to discuss the fake news fallout.

The show could do with more twists and turns, but it’s generally heartening to find Ayckbourn whipping up laughter in the face of artistic adversity, male vanity and looming mortality.

 ??  ?? Peevish: Christophe­r Godwin as crime writer Algy Waterbridg­e
Peevish: Christophe­r Godwin as crime writer Algy Waterbridg­e

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