- Playwright – Alan Ayckbourn
- Location – Harrogate Studio Theatre
- Director – Richard Naylor
Cast
- Sidney – Stuart Kellett
- Jane – Lesley Wheal
- Geoffrey – Chris Rawson
- Eva. – Rachel Conyers
- Ronald – Stuart Newsome
- Marion – Jennifer Cowling
Following the fortunes of three wildly incompatible couples over three consecutive Christmases, Ayckbourn based his drama on the observation that you can discern much about a person from the fit of their kitchen.
Hence we have the Hopcrofts (spotless Formica and sparkling white goods); the Jacksons (knotted pine, filthy oven) and the Brewster-Wrights (temperamental Aga and malfunctioning Victorian boiler).
The play’s satire of the early 1970s get-rich-quick culture remains prescient, even grimly prophetic: the staggeringly unscrupulous Sidney Hopcroft is an uppity property developer with a taste for manipulative party games who literally has the rest of the characters dancing to his tune.