Season's Greetings

300 word review:

Once again, the National Theatre shows off another superb set for another sell out show Seasons Greetings written by Alan Ayckbourn. His plays usually staged in small and intimate theatres is taken and amplified to incredible detail right down to the last door knob. The audience is literally given a window into this family drama as they watch the plot unfold. Even the most frequent theatre-goer is unable to ignore the exquisite detail that has been poured into it as you look up into the attic room all the way down to the electrics and pipes under the floorboards of the stage.
Catherine Tate, the star celebrity of the show uses her brilliant stand up comedy technique and confidently takes to the stage as the 'The IT Crowd' plays the dissatisfied wife aroused by the novelist (Belinda Bunker.) Katherine Parkison best known from plays another disappointed wife as she desperately nags at her husband wasted on the mulled wine. Each comic event easily relatable too for those who dread the family Christmas with his farcical comedy.
Although other critics have found that the set was almost too big to coincide with this hilarious piece of Alan Ayckbourns's work, others think it was definitely a new approach using the wide space of the Lyttelton Theatre and didn't feel that they lost the intimacy that you usually achieve with his plays. Although the comedy seems to fit the taste of an older generation it can be seen as a little bit dated for those from a younger age group. It has to be admired that the director Marianne Elliot certianly picked a tremendous bunch of comic actors to make this play truly successful. Marianne takes a post-modern approach whilst making sure that in the first hour the gloom is allowed to envelop to make the upcoming events all the more hilarious.

One line review: An extraordinarily realistic and brilliant set right down the to the last detail, not a surprise as it was hosted by the National Theatre. The story on the other hand may not reach all ages as the comedy used is one for an older generation, or those that have experienced more Christmas's in order to relate to the disasters that are witnessed in this family riddled play.