The Guardian 4 Star Review of Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present

Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present review – masterful Ayckbourn unwraps a family feud

Naomi Petersen’s turn is the icing on the cake of this time-bending drama from a writer who has lost none of his ingenuity

Dramatists, from George S Kaufman and Moss Hart in Merrily We Roll Along to Harold Pinter in Betrayal, have long been experimenting with reverse chronology. But the ever-inventive Alan Ayckbourn gives it a new spin in his joyous 83rd play by reminding us that a situation becomes even funnier or sadder if we have a shrewd idea in advance of what is going to happen.

Ayckbourn, who turned 80 in April, tracks back in time to look at four birthdays in the same family over four decades. He starts with the 80th of a crusty former coach driver, Micky, who along with his wife Meg, awaits the arrival of their son, Adrian, and his latest girlfriend, Grace.

Unfortunately Micky sees it as his moral duty to warn the churchgoing Grace that the mild-mannered Adrian is a Jekyll and Hyde whose relationships have been ruined by his inordinate sexual demands. Over the next three scenes, leading back to Adrian as a teenager, we discover the devastating falsity of that accusation….

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4 / 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars.