Home | Shows | Past Productions | 2018 Season | The Norman Conquests: TABLE MANNERS
The dining room. Saturday 6pm. A biscuit fight, a cold meal and a cold–shoulder.
TABLE MANNERS makes up one part of Alan Ayckbourn’s comic masterpiece THE NORMAN CONQUESTS trilogy, from the perspective of the dining room.
★★★★ The Guardian, ★★★★ The Daily Telegraph, ★★★★½ ArtsHub, ★★★★ Stage Noise.
- Playwright Alan Ayckbourn
- Director Mark Kilmurry
- Cast Danielle Carter
Rachel Gordon
Brian Meegan
Sam O’Sullivan
Yalin Ozucelik
Matilda Ridgway
- 12 - 12 Jan 2019
- Approx. 2hrs 5mins (including interval)
- Recommended for ages 12+
- Wheelchair Accessible
- Hearing Loop
- Audio Described (selected dates)
Overview
Norman doesn’t exactly look like one of the world’s great lovers. There’s no square jaw or twinkle in his eye. Instead he has a beard that wanders aimlessly, a penchant for puffa puffa rice and the libido of an oversexed sheepdog. Over the course of one weekend in the English country, Norman has a simple mission: to disrupt, inspire and make his extended family happy. Whether they like it or not.
He’s arranged to meet Annie, stuck at home and tired of looking after her cantankerous invalid mother, for an illicit weekend away. But there’s a hitch – Annie is the sister of Norman’s to-the-point and career-driven wife Ruth. And now her oblivious brother Reg and his controlling wife Sarah have arrived to help. Add the local vet Tom and the scene is set for one hell of a weekend.
Alan Ayckbourn’s award-winning trilogy THE NORMAN CONQUESTS is a comic masterpiece of three parallel plays, each tracing the unravelling of Norman and his flailing romantic ambitions from a slightly different, and often simultaneous, perspective – TABLE MANNERS from the dining room, LIVING TOGETHER from the sitting room and ROUND AND ROUND THE GARDEN from the bramble-filled garden.
A rare treat of theatrical ingenuity, the three plays tell and retell the turbulently entertaining story with increasing nuance and humour as offstage conversations and antics from one play appear onstage in another.
See one, or better see them all, in any order, for the complete experience.
ROUND AND ROUND THE GARDEN
The garden. Saturday 5.30pm. A cancelled tryst and a cat up a tree.
LIVING TOGETHER
The sitting room. Saturday 6.30pm. Board games and much too much dandelion wine.
Ticket Prices
| TICKET TYPE | PREVIEWS | IN SEASON |
|---|---|---|
| FULL PRICE | $85 | $90 |
| SENIOR CARD | $82 | $87 |
| PENSIONER | $78 | $83 |
| GROUP 10 - 19 | $78 | $83 |
| GROUP 20+ | $73 | $78 |
| 30 OR UNDER | $40 | $43 |
| FULL-TIME STUDENT | $40 | $43 |
| SCHOOL GROUPS | $25 | $25 |
Reviews
★★★★ "Startlingly clever and all the better for seeing in one go… The Norman Conquests is up there with the British classics The Office and Fawlty Towers.” The Guardian
★★★★½ "As for this thrilling production, the performances are a joy to behold....The direction itself was masterful (Mark Kilmurry)...I recommend you get along to these shows for a night of good feeling and fun." ArtsHub
★★★★ "A masterpiece of playwriting... Kilmurry has gathered a fine cast and directs them to plumb the hurt, frustration and pathos beneath the comic surface." The Daily Telegraph
★★★★ "The Norman Conquests is one of Alan Ayckbourn’s greatest achievements... It’s also a great achievement for Mark Kilmurry as director and for the company of actors who effortlessly handle the huge undertaking... straight up comedy gold. Recommended." Stage Noise
"Each play contains a kind of virtuoso comic set-piece, and in Table Manners it's Sarah's seating plan for dinner going so awry as to turn to mud a meal for which she had such high hopes. But then Ayckbourn's gentle satire is about what actually happens while people are busy hoping." The Sydney Morning Herald
"This Mark Kilmurry-directed production is a cut above, with Ayckbourn’s somewhat heightened portraits coming across as fleshy and fully human." Audrey Journal
"This revival, directed by Mark Kilmurry, is bright and bubbly, a compelling jaunt back in time... by an excellent, and tireless, uniformly captivating cast." Suzy Goes See
"Directed by Mark Kilmurry, the plays are beautifully revealed and 'hum' along with all the confidence of a well oiled machine. The dramaturgical skill of the comic and dramatic formula of the writer's cleverness is immaculately understood. Mr Kilmurry has also selected a wonderfully accurate group of actors who have created real, vulnerable people, and who then, instinctively, have let their comic instincts stretch to the needs of the writing for it to reward the audience with six hours of blissful laughter, and an ultimate identification of compassion for these hapless, ordinary people, who, if we dare to contemplate, are much like ourselves and our extended families, extended or close." Kevin Jackson's Theatre Diary
★★★★ "Positively Chekhovian, luxuriating in the tiny domestic deaths that happen daily. In Table Manners, a fraught dinner is undermined when family members refuse to sit in their allocated places, leading to a dance of musical chairs so funny I wept." The Guardian
Cast & Creatives
Alan Ayckbourn
Alan has spent his life in theatre, rarely if ever tempted by television or film, which perhaps explains why he continues to be so prolific. To date he has written 80 plays and his work has been translated into over 35 languages, is performed on stage and television throughout the world and has won countless awards.
Major successes include: RELATIVELY SPEAKING, HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES, ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR, BEDROOM FARCE, A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL and THE NORMAN CONQUESTS. Recently, there have been revivals of SEASON’S GREETINGS and A SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS at the National Theatre and in the West End productions of ABSENT FRIENDS, A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL, RELATIVELY SPEAKING and HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES.
In 2009, he retired as artistic director of the Stephen Joseph, where almost all his plays have been and continue to be rst staged. In June of 2014 an extremely successful visit of the SJT Ayckbourn Ensemble company to the Brits-off-Broadway Festival at 59E59 Theaters, New York staging his two new 2013 plays ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES and FARCICALS, and a revival of his 1992 play TIME OF MY LIFE attracted uniformly excellent reviews; ARRIVALS & DEPARTURES being included in Time Magazine’s Top Ten Productions of the Year whilst also receiving an enthusiastic salute from the New York Times.
In 2016, he returned to the festival with HERO’S WELCOME and a revival of CONFUSIONS, both productions receiving equally wholehearted plaudits. He received the 2016 Oxford Literary Festival’s Honorary Fellowship and in recent years, he has been inducted into American Theatre’s Hall of Fame, received the 2010 Critics’ Circle Award for Services to the Arts and became the rst British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards.
He was knighted in 1997 for services to the theatre.
Mark Kilmurry
Ensemble Theatre: MCGUFFIN PARK, UNCLE VANYA, THE GREAT DIVIDE, MIDNIGHT MURDER AT HAMLINGTON HALL, BENEFACTORS, RHINESTONE REX AND MISS MONICA, BOXING DAY BBQ, A DOLL’S HOUSE, THE WOMAN IN BLACK, OUTDATED, KENNY, CRUNCH TIME, THE ODD COUPLE, THE LAST WIFE, MURDER ON THE WIRELESS, THE BIG TIME, THE NORMAN CONQUESTS, SHIRLEY VALENTINE, TAKING STEPS, NEVILLE’S ISLAND, TWO, ODD MAN OUT, RELATIVELY SPEAKING, BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, BETRAYAL, GOOD PEOPLE, MY ZINC BED, EDUCATING RITA, ABSENT FRIENDS, OTHER DESERT CITIES, THE ANZAC PROJECT, RICHARD III, THE GLASS MENAGERIE, FRANKENSTEIN, MANAGING CARMEN, RED, THE SPEAR CARRIER and HAMLET. THE ODD COUPLE; The Comedy Theatre, Melbourne & Theatre Royal, Sydney for Crossroads Live Australia. Film: Co-writer and co-director of BEING GAVIN. Literature Illustration: CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS.
Liz Arday
Liz Arday is the 2018 recipient of the Sandra Bates Director’s Award.
For Ensemble Theatre, Liz was Assistant Director under Shannon Murphy for CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION in 2012 and will assist Mark Kilmurry on THE NORMAN CONQUESTS trilogy in 2018. Liz’s other Assistant Director credits include BEACHED (Griffin Theatre), THE LUNCH HOUR and AS YOU LIKE IT (Siren Theatre), and THE VOICES PROJECT: THE ONE SURE THNG (ATYP). As Director, Liz’s credits include YOURS THE FACE, DEBRIS, THE EISTEDDFOD, A WOMAN ALONE (LZA Theatre), RIDE (Red Scarf Theatre, London), LOVELY UGLY (Griffin Theatre), HEDDA GABLER, THREE SISTER, JESUS, YOUR HEART IS MY PIÑATA, THIS IS BABY DOLL (Factotum). Liz will direct a rehearsed reading of Tracey Trinder’s new work KILLING KATIE: CONFESSIONS OF A BOOK CLUB for Ensemble in August 2018.
Liz is a graduate of the VCA Director’s Course and also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Macquarie University.
Danielle Carter
Cast - Sarah
Rachel Gordon
Brian Meegan
For The Ensemble Theatre Brian has appeared IN TWO, A HISTORY OF FALLING THINGS, ABSENT FRIENDS, NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH, FRANKENSTEIN, THE ACT, MY WONDERFUL DAY, NINETY, ABIGAIL’S PARTY, CHAPTER TWO, ART, THE HEARTBREAK KID, MACBETH, WRONG FOR EACH OTHER, ALARMS AND EXCURSIONS and THE BOYS NEXT DOOR. His other theatre credits include COCK for Red Line Productions, GLEN GARRY GLEN ROSS for the Western Australian Theatre Company and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM and THE GRASS WIDOW for The Hole in the Wall Theatre Company. BREAKING THE SILENCE for Marion Street, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING for Shakespeare in the Park, HAMLET, HENRY IV, OTHELLO and ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA for The Sydney Theatre Company and KING LEAR for The Studio Company. Brian also co-wrote his own show, THE BOYS GOTTA BONK which toured to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
For Television he has appeared IN DEVILS DUST, UNDERBELLY “BADNESS”, A MODEL DAUGHTER – THE KILLING OF CAROLINE BYRNE, SEA PATROL, WATER RATS, ALL SAINTS, GRASS ROOTS, STINGERS, BLUE HEELERS, BLUE WATER HIGH and THROUGH MY EYES. Brian played the regular character of Colin Thompson on GOING HOME for SBS. For the ABC he has appeared in MARKING TIME and CURTIN. His voice over credits include PETALS for ABC, OZ THE MAGICAL ADVENTURE – Interactive DVD and DEADLY for Yoram Gross, voice work on the Interactive game BORDERLANDS for 2K Australia P/L. Brian’s film appearances include PRIME MOVER, $9.99, JOYRIDER, THREADED, RISK and THE ILLUSTRATED FAMILY DOCTOR.
Brian graduated from WAAPA in 1984.
Sam O’Sullivan
Cast - Tom
Yalin Ozucelik
Cast - Norman
Matilda Ridgway
Matilda is an award winning actor, theatre maker and arts educator. For the Ensemble Theatre she has performed in PROOF, SEMINAR, MY WONDERFUL DAY, BROOKLYN BOY and RUBY SUNRISE. Her other theatre credits include THIS THIS IS MINE (Corinthian Food Store), JASPER JONES (Belvoir), HAMLET, HENRY 4 and THE PLAYERSs (Bell Shakespeare), CRUCIBLE, MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, A DOLL’S HOUSE and MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Sport for Jove), THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VAN KANT, KAYAK, COCK and SPROUT (Old Fitzroy Theatre), PLATANOV and SWEET NOTHINGS (ATYP).
Her film and television credits include, TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW, JACKIE AND HIDING (ABC), 1919 (ABC), the Cannes Palm D’Or nominee THE GUESTS and the independent feature films MARLEY, SOMEONE and 2010.
Matilda trained at the Ensemble Studios, Atlantic Theatre Company NYC, SITI Company NYC and L’Ecole Phillippe Gaulier Paris. Matilda is a proud member of Equity and WITS.
Hugh O’Connor
Set and Costume Designer
Scott Allan
Scott first worked for the Ensemble Theatre in 1997, and has designed the lighting for productions including BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, THE OLDEST PROFESSION, MOTHERS AND SONS, THE BOOKCLUB, OTHER DESERT CITIES, FOUR FLAT WHITES IN ITALY, LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS, BECKY SHAW, AT ANY COST, WISH I’D SAID THAT, and THE GINGERBREAD LADY. Other productions include: THE MAIDS, BENT, DIARY OF A MADMAN, ROOTED (Hunter Valley Theatre Company); DAMN YANKEES, CRAZY FOR YOU (The Production Company); SEX WITH STRANGERS, BAKERSFIELD MIST, THE HAUNTING OF DANIEL GARTRELL (Straightjacket/Tamainian Theatre Co.); SONDHIEM ON SONDHEIM, STARTING HERE STARTING NOW, BLOOD BROTHERS (Manilla Street); DER FREISCHÜTZ, LA TRAVIATA, CARMEN, I PURITANI, THE MERRY WIDOW, TOSCA, FAUST, LA BOHEME, FIDELIO, THE PEARL FISHERS, THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (Melbourne Opera).
Scott has been the Technical Group Manager for the Arts Faculty at Deakin University for twelve years, and was the Resident Lighting Designer to the Arts Centre Gold Coast for the eight years prior. sallanld.com
Dani Ironside
Dani is a graduate from Charles Sturt University, holding a Bachelor of Arts in Design for Theatre and Television.
Dani’s Stage Management credits with Ensemble Theatre include: LIP SERVICE, WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, ODD MAN OUT, e-baby, JACK OF HEARTS, MY ZINC BED, LADIES IN LAVENDER, ABSENT FRIENDS, OTHER DESERT CITIES, CRUISE CONTROL, NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH, SEMINAR, HAPPINESS, MANAGING CARMEN, SKYLIGHT, GINGERBREAD LADY and WARNING: EXPLICIT MATERIAL. Other Stage Management credits include SAMSON for Belvoir, 2015 CHINESE NEW YEAR CONCERT for Hunan Orchestra of Chinese Music, DMITRY SINKOVSKY RUSSIAN BAROQUE VIOLIN for Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, THE SHOE-HORN SONATA for Riverside Theatre and A SECRET PLACE for Australian Theatre for Young People. Dani is also a Stage Management Mentor & Supervisor at NIDA and Technical Stage Manager at City Recital Hall – Angel Place. For television, Dani has worked on THE VOICE, THE VOICE- KIDS and SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE.
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FAQ
What order should I see the plays in?
There is no correct order to see The Norman Conquests trilogy. The trilogy has tended to be staged in the order of TABLE MANNERS, LIVING TOGETHER and ROUND AND ROUND THE GARDEN but this is not a preferred choice of the playwright and not required to enjoy and understand the show.
What is the chronological order of the plays?
There is no correct ‘chronological order’ of the plays as much of the action happens simultaneously (one play shows what is happening in the dining room at the same time that another play shows what is happening in the living room). ROUND AND ROUND THE GARDEN starts with the earliest scene but ends with the latest.
Do I have to see them all?
Each play can be seen individually. There is no denying that the experience is richer for seeing all three plays, but it is not necessary and the story of the weekend is perfectly entertaining and clear in each play.