RELATIVE VALUES by Noel Coward

Oxford Playhouse

Although written over fifty years ago Relative Values is still a very, very funny play and one which this Theatre Royal Bath Production milks to draining point. The laughs positively pour over each other as the evening unfolds with every performance hitting the mark. Obviously a star vehicle for Susan Hampshire, who revelled in the mixture of wide eyed innocence and acerbic wit as Felicity, Countess of Marshwood, the play also provides great support from the rest of the cast. Ken Bones as the philosophising butler Crestwell puts in a scene stealing turn every time he appears and Simon Green, in the difficult role of Felicity’s nephew Peter, is a natural for the languid elegance needed in Coward plays. As Felicity’s son Nigel, Ian Kelly displays just the right level of upper class petulance whilst Ruth Arnold, playing Moxie the housekeeper, is brimming with concerns about status and what is right and proper.

The high comedy comes from Michelle Gomez and Nigel Whitmey, as Hollywood’s finest Miranda Frayle and Don Lucas, two people whose entire lives seem to be scenes from bad movies. Sophie Jerrold is the star struck maid Alice, whilst John Harwood and Tina Gray play a wonderfully dotty elderly couple, Admiral Sir John and Lady Hayling.

In essence the play concerns a young English nobleman who wishes to marry a Hollywood actress but the plot is secondary to the characters and issues involved. More important are Coward’s comments on the changing social structure of the 1950s, and the relationships between the aristocratic family and their staff. Where friendship crosses the line of duty and the concept of ‘knowing one’s place’ are both themes throughout, but such is the lightness of touch of both writing and acting that these never get in the way of the laughs.

by David Wootton, 04 March 2002