How Alan Ayckbourn is the master of the laugh that catches in your throat - Chichester Festival Theatre

Matthew Cottle is back for his fourth time at Chichester Festival Theatre, this time for Woman In Mind by Sir Alan Ayckbourn (main-house stage, September 23-October 15).
Matthew CottleMatthew Cottle
Matthew Cottle

“I was there in 1994 and that was for The Schoolmistress with the great Patricia Routledge,” Matthew recalls. “That was a huge masterclass on working on that huge stage. Patricia would say a funny line looking to one side and then look around slowly so that the whole audience would get the line and you would feel the laughter moving through the audience.

“And then I didn't come back until 2018. I was doing other things but I came back and did The Chalk Garden with the great Dame Penelope Keith. It's lovely to be working with these wonderful actresses and then I did The Deep Blue Sea in 2019 in the Minerva which was a great place to do it. It's all very raw and real as a play and you don't want to be banging it out so the Minerva absolutely felt right.”

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But now he's back on the main-house stage with the Ayckbourn, a rich, fascinating and amusing play: “Our central character is Susan and she is a suburban housewife in her early 50s living an unhappy life in a sexist marriage with the vicar and you see this family and it's all very grey but then she has this bang on the head and she is suddenly in this wonderful family which is all very colourful and happy. The audience don't know at first which one is real but I play the doctor. The whole thing is happening in Susan’s head. It is her perspective, and she doesn't leave the stage but I am the doctor that comes to see her after her accident. I have always held a torch for her. He is a nice guy. He is a slightly bumbling fool but his heart is in the right place and he cares about Susan.

“I have worked with the great man Alan Ayckbourn himself on half a dozen occasions which is always an absolute joy. People do think that Ayckbourn plays can be slightly comfortable but there is always a darker edge to them. I love the fact that the audience starts laughing and then they stop when they realise that they are laughing at a person who is having a terrible time for some reason. He does that so beautifully. You're laughing and then the laugh catches in your throat.

“This play came out in 1995 and Ayckbourn had a huge hit with it but I think it is one of those plays that people have appreciated more with the passing time. It deals with mental health. He was ahead of his time in that respect with the central female character. And I do think he writes female characters almost better than anyone else but I think originally the idea was that the character was going to be male but he writes these plays in his mind and mulls them over and it became a female character.”

Sir Alan isn’t the director this time: “We have got Anna Mackmin directing and she is brilliant. But Alan is coming down to watch and it's exciting to see him. I haven't seen him for five or six years now and he is just so funny.”