The "things we reserve for the bedroom" - on the Eastbourne stage

Ben will be directing the Ayckbourn: “I enjoy comedy and I'm most successful in my career when I'm doing amusing theatre! But I think the skills are the same whether you're building up a laugh or building up tension. So many of those skills are transferable whether you're trying to be a bit scary or trying to amuse everyone!”

Bedroom Farce was written in 1975: “Ayckbourn’s work is many and varied but I think that period from the mid to late 70s was when he was doing the really iconic works such as The Norman Conquests and Bedroom Farce. It was a period when he was so successful. He's written many brilliant pieces since but I think that was a period when he was at his most prolific. And I think there's something rather nice about setting something which is slightly out of our time. Britain has changed so much since then, but when you look at the plays, you can see that Britain in the 70s and the 80s is drawn really beautifully by Ayckbourn.”

Ernest and Delia are celebrating their wedding anniversary after many, many, many years of marriage; Malcolm and Kate are gearing up to host a party in their new love nest; while Nick and Jan are trying to cope with Nick’s recent back injury which has left him stuck in bed while Jan goes to Malcolm and Kate’s party without him…

Part of the fun is inevitably the set and the costumes. Ben is promising appalling wallpaper and those legendary flares: “I almost get a rash from just looking at all the polyester! No natural fibres are harmed in this production!

“It is the story of four couples seen through the prism of three of their bedrooms. It's very much about the things that we reserve for the bedroom and the way that we are with each other in this private space. I'm not talking about sex though the spectre of sex or the lack of it does hang over things but it's how we are when we are at our most private. We say things in our bedrooms that we would never say outside the bedroom. But it is also about what happens when there are visitors to our bedrooms and what has driven them to this! Ayckbourn is so talented and with such an ear for how we communicate and how we don't communicate. It is brilliant and funny but it is also bittersweet and tragic in some parts. It's holding a mirror up to the way that we are with each other.”

It offers the perfect bit in the middle for the three-play season: “Planning it we're looking first of all for three really cracking plays. Strangers On A Train is a really brilliant Hitchcock Highsmith ripping yarn and then you've got to think about the balance. You've got the thriller and then a bit of light comedy and then an absolute doozy after that with Murder By Misadventure, one of the best thrillers written in recent years. It is three plays, but then you have to think about the cross-casting. Rep is such a fantastic form of theatre and the lovely thing is you get people doing things they might not usually do. So what we search for is a gang of really good brave funny actors that are prepared to embrace the process and the madness of putting on three plays in six weeks. And the audiences also love the transformation of seeing actors change from one play to the next.”

Cast includes George Telfer (To Kill a Mockingbird, Gielgud Theatre) as Ernest, Corrinne Wicks (Doctors, BBC) is Delia. The role of Nick will be played by Phil Stewart (The Invisible Man, Devonshire Park), Katy Dean (The Gathering, Channel 4) as Jan. Malcolm is played by Simon Pothecary (The Woman in Black, West End and tour), Lucy-Jane Quinlan (Dangerous Obsession, Devonshire Park) is Kate, with the part of Trevor played by Pete Ashmore (The Provoked Wife, Royal Shakespeare Company) and Louise Beresford as Susannah.