Amusing exploration of couple’s lives amid an existential crisis
Iwent along to see the latest production of An Hour and Half Late at the Theatre Royal Bath. The show is a new staging of the comedy written by Gerald Sibleyras with Jean Dell and adapted and directed by Belinda Lang.
It stars two Olivier award winning actors - Griff Rhys Jones and Janie Dee who spark off each other well.
The play revolves around a couple Peter and Laura - who realise their lives are at a crossroads when their youngest child finally packs up for university.
An empty nest triggers an existential crisis in Laura who refuses to go to a dinner party that Peter very much wants to go to - as he’s selling his company to the man for a shed load.
What follows is, at times, a funny exploration of Laura’s concerns that the pair’s lives are basically done for and ‘all they have to look forward to is death’.
We hear well trodden universal worries in Laura when she says she’s not fulfilled her life and we see how Peter is able to bring her back out of the hole, sometimes with slapstick comedy.
A particularly enjoyable moment involved an erotically charged duet via squeaky floorboards.
By the end we’re assured that having a family life and a loving partner is an achievement in itself.
Yet I do wish the play probed deeper into some of the issues - infidelity, a sense of worth, marriage, indeed the class system itself. It could have made for a punchier ending but nonetheless I enjoyed my evening.
Jones was assured in his performance and Dee was believable the pair were easy to watch and brought in some easy laughs from the audience.