How The Other Half Loves at The Old Vic Review
How the Other Half Loves was written in 1969 by Alan Ayckbourn, widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest modern playwrights. Even today, the production directed by Phillip Breen continues to resonate with audiences in many ways.
The story revolves around three couples. Fiona Foster (Dorothy Atkinson) and Bob Phillips (Rowan Polonski) are having a secret affair. Fiona does not want her husband, Frank (Roger Allam), to find out, while Bob is equally determined to keep his wife, Teresa (Ayesha Antoine), in the dark. The two begin inventing various excuses to explain why they are not at home or why they have come home so late on a Wednesday evening. To make their stories more convincing, they drag the completely uninvolved Featherstones, William (Adam Gillen) and Mary (Laura Elsworthy), into their web of lies, pretending that they have been helping or keeping the couple company as they deal with marital problems. Their attempts at concealment, however, only generate more misunderstandings, and after two unexpected dinners, the situation becomes increasingly impossible to control.
Just as their misunderstandings become intertwined, so too do their living spaces on stage (Rob Howell). On the circular set are two armchairs, a wooden coffee table, a sofa, and a doll’s house. At first glance, the setting feels comfortably domestic, but on closer inspection, one wicker armchair, with its patterned cushion, is noticeably more refined than the other. This subtly reflects one of the play’s central themes, class difference. Although the couples know one another, their social circumstances are strikingly different. Frank and Fiona Foster occupy the highest social position of the three couples. Both Bob and William work for Frank’s company. The Featherstones, meanwhile, are considerably more reserved than the Phillipses and seem to possess less confidence in their own social standing. These differences in status are conveyed not only through the way the characters relate to one another, but even through the styles of cups they use, which quietly suggest the distinctions between their lives.
At the centre of the stage, two telephones, one red and one green, sit at either end of the coffee table, connecting the Foster and Phillips households respectively. Throughout the play, the characters are often on stage at the same time, but in different places and even different moments in time. This becomes particularly effective when the two couples each invite the Featherstones to dinner on separate evenings. The overlapping dining tables, together with the actors’ responses and deliberate refusal to acknowledge one another, make the two dinners, presented simultaneously as though taking place at the same moment, especially entertaining.
All three couples are convincingly portrayed, but Atkinson and Allam are particularly impressive as the Fosters. There is a palpable sense of long familiarity, patience, and endurance between them, as though they have truly lived together for many years. Allam’s Frank is self-assured and absent minded. He tends to decide what must have happened based on his own assumptions, yet at heart he is a kind man who genuinely wants to resolve conflicts. Although there was a moment during the performance when Allam seemed to lose his place, he incorporated the hesitation into Frank’s characteristic confusion, while his relaxed and natural performance remained highly appealing. One of his greatest strengths is the way he gives even the most ordinary lines a quiet comic edge.
Atkinson’s Fiona has an unmistakable presence, with a touch of sardonic playfulness always lingering in her words and expressions. When she believes that her husband has discovered her secret, her sequence of reactions feels particularly spontaneous and convincing. Antoine’s Teresa is sharp and perceptive, and it is easy to sense how much ability and energy she has that remain unfulfilled, leaving her daily life largely consumed by the frustrations of raising children. By comparison, Polonski’s Bob is a more one dimensional figure, embodying the familiar image of the irresponsible, womanising playboy.
The Featherstones, by contrast, form a striking counterpoint to these four characters. Elsworthy takes Mary’s timidity and nervousness almost to the point of neurosis. Her movements are invariably a little stiff, and she speaks in a noticeably pinched, high-pitched voice, as though nothing could ever quite allow her to relax. Gillen’s William displays a similar reserve, but beneath his repressed manner lies an unsettling combination of ignorance and a desire for control. Although the Featherstones’ performances occasionally verge on exaggeration, the six characters remain compelling throughout, and their intertwined fates continue to hold the audience’s attention.
The title of the play is as clever as the play itself. “The Other Half” refers not only to one’s spouse, but also to another household, another social class, or even the life that one character imagines someone else possesses but feels is missing from their own. Through this seemingly simple chain of events, three families become entangled, each catching a glimpse of the other world they had perhaps once been curious about. And when, towards the end, Fiona embraces her husband and tells him that no one could be better than he is, a brief moment of warmth emerges between a couple who have not truly communicated in a long time.
Throughout the play, there is a steady stream of small, everyday moments of humour, while lines that seem almost out of place at first become precise observations on class, marriage, male pride, and the disrespect men can show towards their wives. It is not simply a comedy, but a play filled with loneliness, disappointment, and absurdity, all deeply rooted in everyday life.
How the Other Half Loves plays at the Old Vic until 19th September 2026.
★★★★
Written by Ziwen at Theatre and Tonic, August 2026.
