About the Play:

The Norman Conquests was one of Royal National Theatre of Britain's top 100 plays of the 20th century.

The Norman Conquests: Table Manners has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues, Female/Female Scenes, and Female/Male Scenes.

The Norman Conquests is a brilliant comic trilogy by Alan Ayckbourn. The self-contained comedies Table Manners, Living Together, and Round and Round the Garden are part of a celebrated trilogy of plays called The Norman Conquests, which take place during the same weekend in the same house and involve the same cast of six characters, namely Norman in ardent pursuit of his sister-in-law, shown from three different perspectives in the family's country home. Each comedy stands alone.

The Norman Conquests details the amorous exploits of Norman, assistant librarian, whose one aim is to make the women of his life happy — these women being, as it happens, three sisters, one of them his wife, who can't wear contact lenses because "life with Norman is full of unexpected eye movements." Each full-length comedy premiered in 1973 at the Library Theatre in Scarborough, England and stands uproariously on its own yet interlocks with the others to form an ingenious Chinese puzzle of successive relations. Includes:

In Table Manners the action is seen from the dining room. Annie has arranged to spend an illicit weekend with her sister Ruth's husband Norman, and for this reason, suitably disguised, has asked her elder brother Reg and his wife Sarah to look after their widowed mother and the house. As it happens the seduction, thought or planned, by each of the six characters never takes place either. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops. (Cast: 3 female, 3 male)

In Living Together the action is seen from the sitting room. Annie, the Cinderella of the family, lives in the shabby Victorian vicarage type house where the family was brought up. Reg, her brother, and his wife Sarah come to stay for a week end so that she may go away for a "rest". The general idea is that Annie ought to pair off with Tom. But for this week end it is Norman, the raffish assistant librarian husband of Annie's sister Ruth, with whom she planned to go. They were to meet secretly but Norman turns up early. When Annie calls the whole thing off Norman decides to stay on at the house and gets roaring drunk. (Cast: 3 female, 3 male)

In Round and Round the Garden the action is seen from the garden. Sarah's desperate attempts to have a nice, civilized week end culminate, not surprisingly, in disaster. Ruth, Norman's wife, is summoned but Norman still contrives to cause havoc involving, finally, all three women. Matters are not helped by such events as the slow thinking Tom mistaking Ruth's intentions during a conversation they have together. Eventually the horrific week end draws to a close. The four visitors depart, but even at the last moment Norman manages, deliberately or not, to wreck all plans by driving his car into Reg's. Back they all troop, now facing having to stay. Norman finds himself spurned by all three women and is left protesting with injured innocence that he only meant to make everyone happy. (Cast: 3 female, 3 male)

Winner of the 2009 Tony Award Best Revival of a Play and the 2009 Outer Critics Circle Outstanding Revival of a Play

What people say:

"To write one brilliant comedy is a feat. To write three in a row, all about the same people, is a tour de force so exceptional I can only throw my hat in the air and rejoice." — Daily Telegraph (London)

"The Norman Conquests is not only funny but impossibly wise about sex, marriage, love, and loneliness." — Time Magazine

"A landmark of theatrical achievement." — Daily Mail (London)

"Mr. Ayckbourn is a diabolically clever devil of a playwright. ... His treatment of time and space is technically dazzling." — The New York Times

"What has long seemed likely is now clear: Mr. Ayckbourne, the Kingsley Amis of the stage, is the most remarkable British dramatist to have emerged since Harold Pinter." — The Sunday Times (London)

About the Playwright:

Alan Ayckbourn, born in London in 1939, is one of the most widely performed living English language playwrights and a highly regarded theatre director. His works, mostly comedies, deal with middle-class manners and conflicts. He is a Tony, Olivier, and Moliere Award winning writer who has written 74 full length plays, more than half of which have gone on to London's West End. His contribution to theatre has been recognized with both a Special Tony Award and the Olivier's Special Award.