How the Other Half Loves is Alan Ayckbourn’s classic 1969 comedy about three couples whose lives become hopelessly entangled through infidelity and misunderstanding. When two straying spouses each use the same hapless third couple as their alibi, the innocent pair are dragged into a web of deception that boils over across two overlapping dinner parties, staged at the same time on the same set.
A masterclass in comic timing and stagecraft, the play returns to the in-the-round staging for which it was originally written, directed by Phillip Breen with a company led by Roger Allam and Dorothy Atkinson.
The production plays a limited season at the Old Vic and is suitable for ages 12 and above.
Why it’s worth the watch
A vintage Ayckbourn farce staged the way he first imagined it, in the round.
- Roger Allam and Dorothy Atkinson. Two of British theatre’s most assured comic actors head the company.
- A famous theatrical trick. Two dinner parties from two different households play out at once on the same set.
- Ayckbourn at his sharpest. The 1969 comedy is a masterclass in timing, structure and social mischief.
- In-the-round at the Old Vic. Phillip Breen restores the immersive staging the play was written for.
