12 – 21 January

LIZA GODDARD and STEVEN PACEY star in Alan Ayckbourn’s hilarious comedy RELATIVELY SPEAKING as the curtain rises on Theatre Royal Bath’s new season

A new production of Alan Ayckbourn’s uproariously funny classic, Relatively Speaking opens at the Theatre Royal Bath starring Liza Goddard, Steven Pacey, Antony Eden and Olivia Le Andersen, appearing from Thursday 12^th to Saturday 21^st January, directed by Robin Herford.

Greg only met Ginny a month ago but he has already made up his mind that she’s the girl for him. When she tells him that she’s going to visit her parents, he decides this is the moment to ask her father for his daughter’s hand. Discovering a scribbled address, he follows her to Buckinghamshire where he finds Philip and Sheila enjoying a peaceful Sunday morning breakfast in the garden. The only thing is – they’re not Ginny’s parents!

Beautifully crafted and charmingly English, this hilarious comedy of misunderstandings was Alan Ayckbourn’s first West End hit, turning him into a household name. When Relatively Speaking opened at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre in 1967, the critics hailed the arrival of a great new comic talent, with Noël Coward praising the young writer on creating “a beautifully constructed and very funny comedy”.

One of the UK’s favourite actresses, Liza Goddard stars as Sheila. Liza has performed at Bath’s Theatre Royal in a huge variety of productions, most recently in Sherlock Holmes: The Final Curtain in 2018. Now marking her twentieth production in Bath in the past 30 years, she has previously played the Theatre Royal in six Ayckbourn plays including Relatively Speaking in 2016, Communicating Doors and Life of Riley in 2011, Season’s Greetings in 2004, Life and Beth in 2009 and If I Were You in 2007. In 2009, Liza starred as the Good Fairy in the Bath pantomime Sleeping Beauty; she also toured to the Theatre Royal in the musical High Society in 2005, the comedy She Stoops to Conquer in 2008 and the thriller Dangerous Obsession in 2006. Her extensive television work includes cult classics The Brothers, Doctor Who, Bergerac, the Australian series Skippy (The Bush Kangaroo) and Take Three Girls; and the comedies Roll Over Beethoven, Pig in the Middle, The Upchat Line and Yes Honestly. For children’s television, she played Mrs Jessop in the ITV series Woof! and narrated Bernard’s Watch. Liza has also made guest appearances in BBC’s Wild West, Casualty and ITV’s Midsomer Murders.

Starring as Philip, Steven Pacey’s career has spanned stage and screen ranging from the role of Del Tarrant in Blake’s 7 to The Phantom of the Opera in the West End. Olivier Award nominated for By Jeeves, his many London stage credits also include the lead role of Georges in La Cage aux Folles opposite Graham Norton; Love’s Labour’s Lost; Things We Do For Love; Relative Values, which also played Bath in 2013, and The Birthday Party, which played Bath in 1999. He has also starred in Six Degrees of Separation at London’s Old Vic, West Side Story in the West End and the UK tour of Spamalot. This will be Steven’s eleventh production at the Theatre Royal since his 1988 role in The Admirable Crichton; he last played Bath in The Nightingales in 2018. His numerous screen credits include Doctors, Wallander, Boy A, Humans, Taggart, The Sweeney, Silent Witness and Poirot.

Antony Eden, who plays the role of Greg, has performed in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Woman in Black and Les Misérables in the West End. His previous Ayckbourn credits include A Brief History of Women and Taking Steps at the Stephen Joseph Theatre and in New York, and Family Album at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. He starred in Yes, Prime Minister on international tour, and has performed in theatres nationwide, including a number of productions for Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre. This is Antony’s fifth visit to the Theatre Royal Bath having previously starred in Carrie’s War in 2010, Relatively Speaking in 2016 and The Woman in Black in both 2012 and 2021. On television, Antony has appeared in ITV’s Emmerdale and The Bill, Derren Brown: Apocalypse on Channel 4, and played Kevin in Kevin and Co and Kevin’s Cousins for the BBC. He also directs and produces shows with his own theatre company, Dead Letter Perfect.

Olivia Le Andersen, who plays Ginny, has appeared in the films Johnny English Strikes Again and The King of Thieves, and performed at London’s Arts Theatre, Bridge Theatre and Jermyn Street Theatre.

One of the world’s greatest living playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn is the author of 87 plays, including Time and Time Again, Bedroom Farce, Comic Potential and The Norman Conquests. Many of his productions have been performed at the National Theatre and in the West End. His work, which has been translated into more than 35 languages, is performed on stage and television throughout the world and has won countless national and international awards. From 1972 to 2009, he was Artistic Director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, which has premiered virtually all his plays. Alan Ayckbourn was inducted into American Theatre’s Hall of Fame; he received the 2010 Critics’ Circle Award for Services to the Arts and he was the first British playwright to receive both Olivier and Tony Special Lifetime Achievement Awards. He was knighted in 1997 for services to theatre.

Relatively Speaking appears at the Theatre Royal Bath from Thursday 12^th January to Saturday 21^st January. To purchase tickets contact the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or book online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk

Photo credit:  Nobby Clark