Sweet on Sugar Daddies

SUGAR DADDIES, Oldham Coliseum
ALAN Ayckbourn’s dark comedy has waited around almost a decade since its early productions, but who better to revive it than one-time Ayckbourn collaborator Robin Herford, back at the Coliseum for his annual, welcome visit.

Ayckbourn has always dealt in heightened and exaggerated reality, and so it is here with a story that borders on the sinister at times.

A naive, 20-year-old student, Sasha (Sarah Vezmar) helps Val, a man in a Santa suit and his seventies (Paul Webster) to her nearby flat after he is knocked down and slightly injured by a car.

He is worldly and charming, she delightful in her simple attitude to life.

Her half sister Chloe (Maeve Larkin) is horrified she has brought a stranger home, and new neighbour, Ashley (Christopher Wilkinson) is equally horrified at the girl’s growing friendship with the older man.

Deception, self-deception and innocence are the assets bought and sold here. Is Sasha really all that naive, since she happily takes money, good times and gifts from Val? Is Val really the charming old pal with money he seems to be, or something much worse? What exactly has Ashley got against him?

It isn’t wrong for a younger woman to enjoy the platonic company of a far older man, but Ayckbourn pushes the relationship to breaking point as her attitude to life changes in favour of the image he has of her.

The play is both interesting and over-contrived; very funny at times, light throughout, but with a dark centre.

Webster is superb as Val, all surface charm and underlying menace, while Sarah Vezmar is equally strong, handling a passable Norfolk accent and the character’s personality change well.

Maeve Larkin, last seen for the Coliseum locked in a cupboard in Taking Steps, comes out of it here as a full-on, paranoid, drama-queen Londoner, while Christopher Wilkinson is admirable support as Ashley — at first amusingly misconstruing the girl’s relationship with Val. Heather Phoenix is exuberant as call girl-turned-designer Charmaine.

The play is a conundrum in that it rarely seems to take a stance on all this personality weakness, content simply to let it happen in front of us. It’s a funny and entertaining couple of hours, but even with Herford’s experience and skill as a director, you wonder exactly what Ayckbourn’s point might be. Don’t accept gifts from strangers?