5 STARS, November 9-18. An utterly brilliant, innovative and enjoyable social car crash of a show, says Fiona Adams
Photo by Mark Douet
How I love to hear the tales of my friends who have had peaceful and joyful family Christmases. I love, even more, to hear of tales of woe, where Granny has got at the sherry too early and the ‘perfect’ nieces and nephews who have done something unspeakable behind the sofa. It’s just so… comforting.
Of course, there are plenty of us who have had car-crash Christmases, which is perhaps why Sam Holcroft’s play, Rules For Living, now running at the Rose is so hugely enjoyable. We feel much better to know that we are not the only dysfunctional ones.
Rules For Living, which first opened at the National in 2015 and is now enjoying its first revival, takes its title from the subconscious props we need to get through each day – our own rules for managing difficult situations. It is set in a family sitting room and kitchen – an ingenious, doll’s house design by Lily Arnold – and the drama unfolds over the course of Christmas Day.
Two sons and their partners have returned to the family roost. Matthew (Jolyon Coy) brings his new girlfriend Carrie, an actress, while Adam (Ed Hughes) is with his wife Nicole and daughter Emma, who spends much of her time upstairs.
Naturally, all is not as fine and dandy as first appears. The boys’ father has been in hospital and is due home at lunchtime. It soon transpires that there is discord between Nicole (Laura Rogers) and Adam, and as the first ‘rule’ pops up in neon above the stage – Matthew must sit down to tell a lie – we learn that love’s young dream is not exactly blooming in his relationship with Carrie (Carlyss Peer).
At first, it is merely hilarious when Matthew keeps sitting down and the subsequent rules pop up: Carrie must stand to tell a joke; Nicole must drink to contradict; Adam must affect an accent to mock and Edith – the wonderful Jane Booker – must clean to keep calm. But time ticks on, the plot darkens and so does the comedy. Neither of the boys has followed their dreams, thanks to their father’s influence and mother’s utter subservience to her husband and it has affected everything in their lives.
Photo by Mark Douet
Adam lost his nerve as a cricketer and is now a mediocre lawyer; Nicole, frustrated by his inability to commit to anything, has thrown him out of the family home. Their daughter Emma is suffering from anxiety and fatigue, a modern phenomenon her grandmother cannot or will not understand. Matthew, whose first love was drama, is a successful lawyer but cannot help but be drawn to the theatrical Carrie, although it is the practical though clearly sozzled Nicole he really loves.
The play is set on its ultimate collision course with the arrival of father Francis (Paul Shelley), a cruel man and serial philanderer. As the doorbell rings, Edith cleans more and more hysterically, popping the pills and clinging on to her own rules for living to keep things under control. There’s to be no use of electronic devices, she intones, no talk of politics, health or global warming… the list is extensive and ends with her mantra: if you can’t say anything nice, say nothing at all.
Suffice it is to say – without ruining the entire plot and quite startling final scenes – that the day descends into chaos. As the family play a new card game, Bedlam, unhappy truths emerge, tempers flare, old grievances reemerge and the characters have to face up to their own rules, all the while trying to conform to those expected by ‘the family’. Bedlam is indeed where they have ended up.
I don’t often get to write this, but without exception the cast is tremendous, each playing their roles with absolute conviction and authenticity. You will love them and loathe them, sympathise with them and despair in the next breath. Rules For Living is touching and tragic, but also side-splittingly funny. I don’t think I’ll ever experience another Christmas like it. I loved it.
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