Ayckbourn’s Confusions is an ensemble piece consisting of five one-act plays, five actors and twenty different characters. The plays are loosely linked, both in theme and content. The conspicuously absent husband in the first play chats up two uninterested women in the next, watched by a waiter who goes on to overhear two quite personal conversations at his restaurant. One of the diners then attends a village fair organised by the ex-husband of a woman in the fifth play. These connections are certainly not overt (I only got two of them while I was watching) and are by no means integral to appreciating play, even if they do add interest. The more obvious connection to draw is that of loneliness, which pervades the lives of the characters, and like the best comedy, the sense of loneliness is brought out in a variety of ways which are at times amusing and whimsical, and at others, devastatingly pitiful.

The plays reach a comic climax in the fourth piece, ‘Gosforth’s Fete’, which is the most popular of the five. (Personally, I found ‘Between Mouthfuls’ the most enjoyable – the seamless drifting in and out of the two dinner conversations was impressive, while Stephen Billington’s turn as the Waiter was perhaps my favourite performance.) The final play, ‘A Talk in the Park’ is a collection of monologues delivered by five people sitting on benches, all determined not to sit next to each other, and unable to stop opening up to each other when they do, and it’s not difficult to see why some productions cut it. The comedy of ‘Gosforth’s Park’ provides a comfortable ending, although that is no doubt why Ayckbourn’s intention was to end the play with something a little more oblique.

However, it is difficult to get away from the fact that the play feels rather out-dated. The themes of marriage and separation seem more like stereotypes than nuanced portrayals of human relationships, and all appear to take place in a world in which all the men are absent, eternal fugitives from their over-controlling wives, and all the women are clingy, downtrodden, and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I can appreciate Ayckbourn’s sincerity in dealing with these issues, but the way in which he does so feels (perhaps overly) familiar, giving us little in the way of novelty.

The performances and production more than made up for my doubts about the play itself. It’s known for being a difficult play to stage and it’s not hard to see why. To coordinate five different sets and twenty characters in the space of two hours is no easy feat, yet this production managed to do so smoothly. Furniture was rarely reused between scenes (impressive in and of itself) and even when it was, it was barely noticeable. One clever piece of staging was the decision in ‘Between Mouthfuls’ not to have any actual food or drink onstage, which added a surreal air to proceedings as the actors drank from empty glasses and were presented with empty toast racks. The costumes were also very admirable, helping to create a sense of identity for each new character, especially notable on the occasions where the two women (Elizabeth Boag and Emma Manton) played characters much older than they really were. The crux of the play, however, is in its five incredibly talented actors of whom no one stood out as particularly weaker or stronger - an unusually consistent cast. Heartfelt and genuine, their performances had me believing in the characters they were portraying, even when the writing could not.