Review: Superb, clever and well-rounded play by Alan Aykbourn

Deny it though we might, there is something fascinating about watching a family tear itself to pieces. Perhaps it’s a cathartic effect: there but for the grace of God go we.

Time of My Life is a clever, well-rounded play about not knowing when you are happy - and the temptations of hope. For a brief moment at Laura’s (Sarah Parks) birthday meal at the weird Mediterranean restaurant to which they always come and which is, for them, the centre of their universe, happiness appears a possibility. But soon power games replace the bonhomie. Laura is the matriarch, a queen bee with a vicious sting. Of her sons, the youngest Adam (James Powell) is loved; the other, Glyn (Richard Stacey) is not. We never really know why, it is just so. The boys bring their partners, neither of which can meet with Laura’s approval. And as for her husband Gerry (Russell Dixon), once she was attracted to him because he was the most dangerous kid on the block.

But that was a long time ago.

The joy of this play is the way it deftly interlocks three different time sequences, one for each couple, spiralling towards or away from the central moment. The acting, characterisation, and direction are of course superb given the show’s pedigree. But while the observations are sharp and often laugh-out-loud funny, they are a disturbing reminder that it is not just love that holds a family together, but something altogether darker.

Nick Le Mesurier