24/11/02 The Last Two Rep Shows of 2002

To my dear Rep Friends,

Thanks for having me at the opening of TTWDFL. I want to congratulate all for a slickly produced evening of hilarious comedy. Ah. But there's the rub.

Sorry for my thinking out loud a bit too much of late, but I really have to say that I'm perplexed how audiences will walk out of "How I Learned To Drive" in droves - seemingly offended by something in the content of what they were watching - yet are quite happy to laugh and clap as some particularly nasty infidelity works its way to an almost quasi-heroic conclusion in the recent Ayckbourn at Theatre 3.

And Geoff Borny's character, Gilbert - what with all that pain of unrequited love - is he just there for comic relief?

I think clapping for Barbara and Hamish and laughing at poor ol' Gilbert are abhorrent responses.

I wanted to kill the two characters at the end of TTWDFL, lock them in Gilbert's basement and send Gilby somewhere for art therapy. They upset me more than Uncle Peck did in "How I Learned To Drive". Because the central character in "How I Learned To Drive" found some sort of redemption, and the play's conclusion suggested it, I think the Vogel had something uplifting to offer us all.

Ayckbourn's play just suggested that human nastiness makes for hilarious comedy. And aren't we just silly to be laughing at our own nastiness and stupidity?

Ho ho ho.

The things we do for love.

Cheers George