How the Other Half Loves

By Alyn Aykbourn

Directed by E. O. Hawkins
March 20, 21, 22, and 23, 1986
Veterinary Medicine Auditorium
Mississippi State University

Featuring – Madeline Branton, Edwin Ellis, Scott Kowerduck, Terry Reese McDowell, Marianne Ulmer, and John E. Wells

How the Other Half Loves is a direct descendant of the drawing room farces of Oscar Wilde and Noël Coward. It adds a more contemporary outlook, including references to and a certain dependence upon the precepts of the ‘permissive society’, but it is essentially a tale of well-to-do people getting lost in the mix between social graces and personal misunderstandings. In common with Wilde and Coward, it also trades on the quintessentially English sense of faint superiority and the proprietary repression of natural emotional reactions to extreme situations. It is also very funny. The popular play explores the interaction between three couples connected by the workplace of the three men. Frank and Fiona Foster are the wealthy manager and wife. Teresa and Bob Phillips are a slightly more down-market pair and have recently become parents for the first time. William and Mary Featherstone are a duo unwittingly drawn into a series of subterfuges when Mrs. Foster and Mr. Phillips try to cover up their fleeting dalliance with one another by informing their respective spouses that the Featherstones are the ones who are having marital problems.

Click here to read the How the Other Half Lives program.

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