Critics have responded warmly to Phillip Breen’s revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s How the Other Half Loves at the Old Vic, with critics agreeing on the sheer craft of Breen’s in-the-round production and Roger Allam’s stand-out performance.
How the Other Half Loves opened at The Old Vic last night. Directed by Phillip Breen, with Roger Allam as Frank Foster and Dorothy Atkinson as his wife Fiona, the production forms part of Matthew Warchus’s final season as the Old Vic’s Artistic Director.
It has come in for largely warm praise from the critics, with particular attention being paid to the in-the-round staging, a stellar turn from Roger Allam and the ingenuity of Ayckbourn’s structural conceit, in which two dinner parties on consecutive nights play out simultaneously across overlapping households.
The Standard did raise sharp reservations about how the play’s 1969 sexual politics have aged, giving it a three star rating.
The verdict: A masterfully crafted, brilliantly performed revival of a structurally ingenious farce, with only one review questioning whether its 1969 gender politics have aged well.
The response to How the Other Half Loves has been consistently positive, with several four star reviews praising the production’s craft and cast, and a third, more reserved three stars from The Stage and The Standard, the latter of which admired the staging but questioned the play’s dated politics.
| Publication | Rating | The Key Takeaway |
| The Independent | ★★★★ | A slick, uncomfortable revival that turns marriage into an instrument of torture |
| The Telegraph | ★★★★ | Allam brings the biggest laughs, offering poignancy beneath the farce |
| The Times | ★★★★ | Allam gives a comic masterclass, even as some characters feel closer to props |
| The FT | ★★★★ | Toe-curlingly enjoyable, alive to the misogyny and social commentary beneath the chaos |
| WhatsOnStage | ★★★★ | A masterful, laugh-out-loud production, as relevant today as when it was written |
| The Standard | ★★★ | Meticulously crafted but wildly implausible, with dated sexual politics |
| The Stage | ★★★ | Delivers chuckles and winces with aplomb, though occasionally overlong and laborious |
The reviews: what they loved about How the Other Half Loves
- Roger Allam’s performance. Universally singled out. The Independent found him “hilarious” as “an old bore of a husband,” WhatsOnStage called him “a standout,” praising his ability to make the mundane “simultaneously tedious and hilarious,” and even the Standard’s more critical review found him “still silkily hilarious.” The Times called it “a masterclass in comic timing,” where “every pause, every hesitation, every bumbled phrase is a delight.”
- The play’s structural ingenuity. All three reviews admired Ayckbourn’s overlapping dinner-party conceit. WhatsOnStage called Breen’s staging of the “constantly intersecting scenes” a feat of “huge fluidity and dexterity,” while the Standard, despite reservations elsewhere, conceded the production is “meticulously plotted and executed.” and the FT called Ayckbourn “an innovative dramatist” for staging two “excruciating evenings simultaneously.”
- The design work. WhatsOnStage and the Standard both praised Rob Howell’s set for its class-conscious detail, contrasting the Fosters’ refined interiors with the Phillips’ more run-down household.
- Dorothy Atkinson’s Fiona. WhatsOnStage called her an “Ayckbourn veteran” who “excels at drawing out a world of emotion in a single raised eyebrow.” The Telegraph felt she channelled “Penelope Keith’s Margo Leadbetter at her most majestically withering.”
- Laura Elsworthy and Adam Gillen as the Featherstones. The Independent found Elsworthy “a standout,” praising her “extravagantly neurotic” Mary, and admired Gillen’s performance as her overbearing husband. The Telegraph found Elsworthy “both hysterical and heartbreaking,” while the FT enjoyed the moment her character “draws cheers when she finally turns the tables on her dominating husband.”
The reviews: what fell flat for How the Other Half Loves
- The play’s dated gender politics. The Standard’s central objection. Nick Curtis argued the play “leaves a rancid taste,” delivering “a relentless diet of sexist tropes” before “a half-hearted, you-go-girl redemption speech” for Mary at the close. The Stage and the FT both acknowledged the production is “alive to the misogyny and sexism of the age” without shying away from it.
- Implausibility. The Standard also felt the plot’s central contrivances, particularly the reasoning behind the Featherstones’ involvement in both dinner parties, don’t hold up to scrutiny, calling the play “wildly implausible.”
- A caricatured Mary, for some. WhatsOnStage felt Elsworthy’s performance tipped from comic anxiety into caricature, noting the “humour created quickly grates.” The Stage felt Elsworthy “does a lot of gurning,” even while crediting her with real depth beneath the comedy.
- Pacing. The most consistent technical criticism. The Telegraph felt pacing was “an issue,” citing “Ayckbourn’s rather laborious writing,” while The Stage agreed the piece “feels overlong,” with “the comic engine taking time to grind into gear.”
- A less dimensional Bob. WhatsOnStage found Rowan Polonski’s performance “more one-dimensional” than his co-stars, as the “lothario and wide-boy” outwitted by his own wife.
The back story
How the Other Half Loves was written by Alan Ayckbourn in 1969, at the height of the sexual revolution, and was originally conceived to be staged in the round.
The play follows two very different married couples, drawn into uncomfortable intimacy after an affair between Fiona Foster and Bob Phillips threatens to unravel both marriages, and an unsuspecting third couple, the Featherstones, are unwittingly recruited as alibis.
Its centrepiece is a virtuoso sequence in which two separate dinner parties, on consecutive nights, are staged simultaneously on the same set.
Where to see How the Other Half Loves
- Venue: The Old Vic, London, until 19 September 2026
- Age: To be confirmed
- Runtime: 2 hours 45 minutes
- Full details on How the Other Half Loves
What are the critics saying about How the Other Half Loves?
" Roger Allam dominates the stage as Frank, a hilarious old bore of a husband, incapable of understanding the intricate machinery of infidelities around him."
"There’s so much ingenious craftsmanship in Ayckbourn’s play"
" Elsworthy is a standout as Mary, extravagantly neurotic and terrified of being noticed, yet unignorable as she bodily buckles at the thought of being required to consume a dry sherry."
"Director Phillip Breen delivers a masterful interpretation of Ayckbourn’s How The Other Half Loves"
"Roger Allam is a standout as befuddled Frank"
"Atkinson is an Ayckbourn veteran and excels at drawing out a world of emotion in a single raised eyebrow as she desperately tries to hide the truth. "
"Breen’s choreography of the constantly intersecting scenes and use of swivel chairs is done with huge fluidity and dexterity"
"A laugh-out-loud and multi-layered production. "
"Skilfully navigated by a terrific cast"
"Phillip Breen’s production is in the round, as originally intended, heightening our voyeuristic sense of peeking behind the suburban net curtains."
"As Frank’s adulterous wife Fiona, Dorothy Atkinson brilliantly channels Penelope Keith’s Margo Leadbetter at her most majestically withering"
"Rob Howell supplies eye-popping design, from a turquoise landline to orange stripes, flares and, memorably, Allam’s skimpy running shorts."
" Allam delivers a masterclass in comic timing. Every pause, every hesitation, every bumbled phrase is a delight. "
" the Featherstones — played with ferocious precision by Adam Gillen and Laura Elsworthy"
"Dorothy Atkinson’s Fiona wins our sympathy too. She speaks crisply and efficiently, yet those silent looks and long-suffering glances tell us much, much more."
"Phillip Breen’s highly enjoyable revival at London’s Old Vic relishes the period detail, while also scoping out the shrewd social commentary and fundamental human truths that underpin the chaos."
"Howell’s in-the-round set leaves nowhere for actors or audience to hide and increases the toe-curling enjoyment. "
"Allam’s Frank is a joy"
"Fifty years on, for all its period accuracy, How the Other Half Loves still resonates."
"meticulously plotted and executed, elegantly staged in the round as originally conceived"
"coasts successfully on the comic timing of Dorothy Atkinson and Roger Allam (still silkily hilarious despite fluffing his lines several times on opening night)"
"The play presents itself as a subversion of late-60s patriarchal norms by serving up a relentless diet of sexist tropes and then delivering a half-hearted, you-go-girl redemption speech for Mary at the end."
"the gender politics leave a rancid taste."
"it also feels overlong and occasionally laborious, the comic engine taking time to grind into gear and the broadly drawn characters sometimes grating"
"Some of the marital bickering feels so authentic that you practically lose the will to live"
"Breen serves up the chuckles and the winces with aplomb"
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