DONKEYS’ YEARS
Michael Frayn’s sparkling comedy
04 Feb - 15 March 2008
When respectable men meet for a festive dinner 25 years after their university graduation in their still familiar college surroundings, one might expect a jolly revel; no one reckoned with the ensuing bacchanalian debauchery.
As the story unfolds it appears the erstwhile students have developed in very different ways. The gentlemen can, nonetheless, boast respectable careers in the fields of politics, medicine, church, parasitology, literature, etc. On this particular evening just as always, they are served by the ageless factotum, Sidney Birkett, who has housed each one in his former rooms. Among the handshaking, shoulder clapping and carousing there wanders the confused ethical pharmacologist, Snell, an unknown outsider in his student days and now as before a “nobody” to the others present. The rector is unable to attend the gathering but his wife, Lady Driver, stands in for him although, whilst under the pretext of greeting the guests, she is desperately on the lookout for her old college love, Roddy Moore. Rosemary Driver has transformed herself over the years from popular campus party girl to a proper Master’s wife, and has no intention of remaining at the festivities. Yet the mysterious Roddy, formerly the “coolest” of them all, keeps the others waiting, and Lady Driver makes the unfortunate decision to sneak into the rooms reserved for him.
After dinner the by now quite tipsy gentlemen burst into Roddy’s room unaware that Birkett has in the meantime given this room to Snell. Snell, as the only totally sober one, enjoys being in the centre of the action for once; a situation that will bring out hitherto unsuspected sides of his personality. Meanwhile, Birkett locks up the entire college before leaving for the night, including the connecting door to the Driver’s house. No one can enter, no one can leave. Rosemary is thus trapped in Snell’s bedroom as the celebrations look to continue way into the night with the arrival of a keg of beer in Snell’s living room.
Yet this is just the beginning of a crazy hilarious night…
As the story unfolds it appears the erstwhile students have developed in very different ways. The gentlemen can, nonetheless, boast respectable careers in the fields of politics, medicine, church, parasitology, literature, etc. On this particular evening just as always, they are served by the ageless factotum, Sidney Birkett, who has housed each one in his former rooms. Among the handshaking, shoulder clapping and carousing there wanders the confused ethical pharmacologist, Snell, an unknown outsider in his student days and now as before a “nobody” to the others present. The rector is unable to attend the gathering but his wife, Lady Driver, stands in for him although, whilst under the pretext of greeting the guests, she is desperately on the lookout for her old college love, Roddy Moore. Rosemary Driver has transformed herself over the years from popular campus party girl to a proper Master’s wife, and has no intention of remaining at the festivities. Yet the mysterious Roddy, formerly the “coolest” of them all, keeps the others waiting, and Lady Driver makes the unfortunate decision to sneak into the rooms reserved for him.
After dinner the by now quite tipsy gentlemen burst into Roddy’s room unaware that Birkett has in the meantime given this room to Snell. Snell, as the only totally sober one, enjoys being in the centre of the action for once; a situation that will bring out hitherto unsuspected sides of his personality. Meanwhile, Birkett locks up the entire college before leaving for the night, including the connecting door to the Driver’s house. No one can enter, no one can leave. Rosemary is thus trapped in Snell’s bedroom as the celebrations look to continue way into the night with the arrival of a keg of beer in Snell’s living room.
Yet this is just the beginning of a crazy hilarious night…
V.E.T. recommends
