Season's Greetings (play)
Encyclopedia
Season's Greetings is a 1980 play by British
playwright
Alan Ayckbourn
. It is a black, though often farcical, comedy about a dysfunctional family
Christmas, set over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day in an average English suburban house.
The nine adults are:
Throughout Christmas Day Clive grows closer to Belinda and more distant form Rachel. Finally around midnight, after a a drunken game of snakes and ladders
, and after Belinda and Clive believe everyone has gone to bed, they attempt to make love in the sitting room - thwarted when they set off a toy drumming bear which alerts everyone else.
On Boxing Day, Bernard goes through the rehearsal of a his dreadful puppet show of The Three Little Pigs. But after only two of the sixteen scenes, Harvey grabs the puppets and ends it with a fight, enraging Bernard.
On the 27th, Clive attempts to sneak off first thing in the morning (the lack of trains preventing a departure on Boxing Day), only Harvey to shoot him at the end of the play having mistaking him for a looter. Bernard incompetently pronounces him dead. When Clive recovers, he is taken to hospital, leaving Neville and Belinda together, Neville having chosen to ignore what happened.
(then at the Westwood site), with the following cast:
The creative team was:
The play was shown again the following year, with the play partially recast.
The year after that, the play received its London
première and the Greenwich Theatre
on 28 January 1982, before transferring to the West End
at the Apollo Theatre
on 29 March 1982. It ran until 18 September 1982.
.
A London revival was staged at the Royal National Theatre
in December 2010 and will run until March 2011
produced a television version of the play. It featured Michael Cashman
, Barbara Flynn
, Nicky Henson
, Anna Massey
, Geoffrey Palmer
and Peter Vaughan
. It was directed by Michael A. Simpson.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
. It is a black, though often farcical, comedy about a dysfunctional family
Dysfunctional family
A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is...
Christmas, set over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day in an average English suburban house.
Characters
The characters seen on stage are the nine adults present in the house. All of the children present ion the house are off-stage characters, although a few productions have been known to use child actors.The nine adults are:
- Bernard, a feeble-spirited doctor, with strong views on non-violence and obsessed with a dismal puppet show for the children;
- Phyllis, Bernard's drunken lush of a wife, whom Bernard struggles to support;
- Neville, Phyllis's brother. always busy fiddling with anything mechanical out in his shed;
- Belinda, endures a stale marriage to Neville, resorting to flapping about the house and constantly dressing the Christmas tree.
- Eddie, a lacklustre and lazy man who tried to strike out on his own but failed, sucks up to his friend Neville for work;
- Pattie, Eddie's pregnant wife, largely ignored, and can only nag at him and wish she were not having another child;
- Rachel, Belinda's emotionally fuddled sister;
- Clive writer in a non-starter of a relationship with Rachel; and
- Harvey, Neville and Phyllis's brother, a cantankerous military man, bemoans the collapse of society whilst himself gorging on TV violence, much to Bernard's annoyance.
Plot
The play begin on Christmas Eve. Harvey and Bernard argue over the violence of a film of TV, Neville and Eddie obsess over building remote controlled Christmas Tree lights, the men largely ignore the women, and Rachel gets anxious over the late arrival of Clive. She eventually leave the house looking for him, and Clive instead arrives and meets Belinda, who swiftly develop a mutal attraction.Throughout Christmas Day Clive grows closer to Belinda and more distant form Rachel. Finally around midnight, after a a drunken game of snakes and ladders
Snakes and ladders
Snakes and Ladders is an ancient Indian board game regarded today as a worldwide classic. It is played between two or more players on a game board having numbered, gridded squares. A number of "ladders" and "snakes" are pictured on the board, each connecting two specific board squares...
, and after Belinda and Clive believe everyone has gone to bed, they attempt to make love in the sitting room - thwarted when they set off a toy drumming bear which alerts everyone else.
On Boxing Day, Bernard goes through the rehearsal of a his dreadful puppet show of The Three Little Pigs. But after only two of the sixteen scenes, Harvey grabs the puppets and ends it with a fight, enraging Bernard.
On the 27th, Clive attempts to sneak off first thing in the morning (the lack of trains preventing a departure on Boxing Day), only Harvey to shoot him at the end of the play having mistaking him for a looter. Bernard incompetently pronounces him dead. When Clive recovers, he is taken to hospital, leaving Neville and Belinda together, Neville having chosen to ignore what happened.
Premières
Season's Greetings was premièred on 25 September 1980 at the Stephen Joseph TheatreStephen Joseph Theatre
The Stephen Joseph Theatre is a theatre in the round in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England that was founded by Stephen Joseph and was the first theatre in the round in Britain....
(then at the Westwood site), with the following cast:
- Harvey - Robin Herford
- Bernard - Ronald Herdman
- Belinda - Tessa Peake-JonesTessa Peake-JonesTessa Peake-Jones is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Raquel in the television comedy series Only Fools and Horses. She had a co-starring role in the 1999 TV series Births, Marriages, and Deaths...
- Pattie - Lavinia Bertram
- Neville - Michael SimkinsMichael SimkinsMichael Simkins is an English actor.-Life and career:Simkins was born in Brighton, Sussex. He attended Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School and while still at school performed works by Gilbert and Sullivan in a group called the Wandering Minstrels, which he co-founded in Brighton in the...
- Eddie - Jeffrey Robert
- Rachel - Marcia WarrenMarcia WarrenMarcia Warren is an English stage, film and television actress. On stage, she appeared in Blithe Spirit as Madame Arcati, and The Sea at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.-Partial filmography:...
- Phyllis - Susan Uebel
- Clive - Robin Bowerman
The creative team was:
- Director - Alan AyckbournAlan AyckbournSir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
- Design - Edward Lipscomb
- Lighting - Francis Lynch
- Music - Paul Todd
The play was shown again the following year, with the play partially recast.
The year after that, the play received its London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
première and the Greenwich Theatre
Greenwich Theatre
The Greenwich Theatre is a local theatre located in Croom's Hill close to the centre of Greenwich in south-east London.-Building history:The building was originally a music hall created in 1855 as part of the neighbouring Rose and Crown public house, but the Rose and Crown Music Hall was...
on 28 January 1982, before transferring to the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
at the Apollo Theatre
Apollo Theatre
The Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre, on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. Designed by architect Lewin Sharp for owner Henry Lowenfield, and the fourth legitimate theatre to be constructed on the street, its doors opened on 21 February 1901 with the American...
on 29 March 1982. It ran until 18 September 1982.
Revivals
Season's Greetings has had numerous revivals in professional theatre, including a 2004 touring revival directed by Ayckbourn himself for the Yvonne Arnaud TheatreYvonne Arnaud Theatre
The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, Surrey presents in-house productions which often tour and transfer to London's West End. Other performances include opera, ballet and pantomime. Named after the actress Yvonne Arnaud, the company has two performance venues, a main theatre and the smaller Mill...
.
A London revival was staged at the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in December 2010 and will run until March 2011
Adaptations
In 1986 the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
produced a television version of the play. It featured Michael Cashman
Michael Cashman
Michael Maurice Cashman is a British former actor, now a Labour politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands constituency since 1999.- Acting :...
, Barbara Flynn
Barbara Flynn
Barbara Flynn is an English actress. She first became known for her appearance in the ITV drama A Family at War, that followed the fortunes of a lower middle class family living in Liverpool from 1938 and through World War II.During the 1980s Flynn's acting skills led to her being cast in several...
, Nicky Henson
Nicky Henson
Nicholas Victor Leslie "Nicky" Henson is an English actor who has portrayed many roles since 1963. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1977. He was born in London.-Early life:...
, Anna Massey
Anna Massey
Anna Raymond Massey, CBE was an English actress. She won a BAFTA Award for the role of Edith Hope in the 1986 TV adaptation of Anita Brookner’s novel Hotel du Lac.-Early life:...
, Geoffrey Palmer
Geoffrey Palmer (actor)
Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE is an English actor, best known for his roles in sitcoms such as Butterflies and As Time Goes By.-Career:...
and Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan is an English character actor, known for many supporting roles in a variety of British film and television productions. He has worked extensively on the stage, becoming known for roles such as police inspectors, Soviet agents and similar parts...
. It was directed by Michael A. Simpson.