Things We Do For Love |
REVIEW by Willard Manus LOS ANGELES
-- Alan Ayckbourn is the Neil Simon of Great Britain--a popular and prolific
playwright who knows how to blend comedy and drama into a single, satisfying
theatrical potion that slides down the gullet easily. In THINGS WE DO
FOR LOVE, his 52nd play, he looks at sexual obsession with a darkly satirical
eye, making us laugh at its consequences even as we are wincing in pain.
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At the heart of THINGS is a triangular situation: Nikki and Hamish are newly in love and thinking of marriage, a plan that is turned upside down when Hamish and Barbara, the unlikeliest couple in the world--she's a snob, he's a down-to-earth Scotsman--fall in lust with each other. The attraction is played for laughs, but it causes pain and heartbreak in the end--even for the cross-dressing Gilbert in his basement hovel. THING'S marvelous set is by Don Llewellyn. Ron Sossi produced for the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Thru July 11, call (310) 477-2055 or visit odysseytheatre.com |