School of Performing Arts and Cinema to present light-hearted comedy 'Relatively Speaking'
Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts and Cinema will stage Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy "Relatively Speaking" April 17 to 27 in the Squires Student Center Studio Theatre.
The production is directed by faculty member David Johnson, and is the final play in the Mainstage Theatre series for the 2012-13 season.
"Relatively Speaking" centers on Greg and Ginny, a young British couple. Hoping to marry his girlfriend, Greg endeavors to meet Ginny’s parents at their home and ask for their approval to wed their daughter. Confusion and hilarity erupt, however, when Greg mistakes Philip, Ginny’s former employer and lover, for her father. Philip must pretend to be Ginny’s father in this case of mistaken identity, so his own wife Sheila will remain none the wiser to his affair. As the characters converge and the truth bubbles up, this comedy of errors propels forward to a hysterical finale.
Critics have characterized it as a “deliciously heady concoction,” a “feather-light farce,” and “light as a souffle” since its London Premiere in 1965.
Ayckbourn wrote the play based on a request for a piece "which would make people laugh when their seaside summer holidays were spoiled by the rain." The playwright has penned 77 plays and his works have been translated into more than 35 languages.
For his extensive achievements in theatre making, he has received such accolades as Knighthood in Services to the Theatre (1997), a Critics’ Circle Award for Services to the Arts (2010), both Tony and Olivier Special Lifetime Achievement Awards, and induction into the American Theatre’s Hall of Fame.
Performances are April 17 to 21 and 23 to 27 at 7:30 p.m. and April 21 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 general admission, $8 student/senior, and are available at the Student Centers and Activities Ticket Office in the Squires Student Center. For tickets, call 540-231-5615, order online, or purchase at the ticket office. Tickets will also be sold at the door beginning one hour prior to the performance.
Free parking is available in the Squires Lot, located at the corner of College Avenue and Otey Streets, in the Architecture Annex Lot on Otey Street, and the Perry Street/Prices Fork lots. Find more parking information online or call 540-231-3200. Alternative parking is available in the Kent Square parking garage and the Farmers Market metered parking lot, both located on Draper Road. Additional downtown Blacksburg parking information can be found online.
Written by Jon Catherwood-Ginn.
