Enjoy - Theatre Royal - Bath
’Enjoy’, Alan Bennett’s play starring the redoubtable Alison Steadman and David Troughton, was written almost thirty years ago and is a witty and sometimes stark observation of a family living in the bleak surroundings of a back-to-back house in Leeds, soon to be demolished and its occupants re-homed in a bright new maisonette. Ahead of its time, all the problems addressed are unfortunately still with us today. Wilf and Connie are an elderly couple, she cheerfully forgetful and he coping morosely with disabilities resulting from an accident and the deficits of old age.
Their son’s existence is denied for dark reasons that become apparent later in the play and their daughter, respected and revered by Wilf as she has made something of herself and has become a private secretary, but in reality follows a much older profession. Josie Walker makes a splendid portrayal of Linda looking as much unlike a private secretary as possible in suede mini skirt and platform shoes.
The play has a rich vein of black humour with an undertow of pathos thrown in for good measure and the plot finishes with an unusual twist. There’s a great piece of almost slapstick comedy when Wilf (habitually known as dad) is thought to have died and the sort of woman who always lives next door in back-to-back houses comes around to help undress and lay him out with hilarious results. The audience laughed uproariously and I’m not sure how the cast kept straight faces; consummate professionalism I suppose!
Although ’Enjoy’ is not what you would normally expect from an Alan Bennett play; as well as humour it has a more serious message which the cast bring out beautifully in their character interpretations of a family under siege from circumstances beyond their control. It’s always good to see a lesser-known play taken out and dusted off to such good effect and although I think originally it received brickbats rather than bouquets, this time around that certainly won’t be the case.
Jacquie Vowles