REVIEW: Alan Ayckbourn’s Ten Times Table is at the Mill at Sonning

Anyone who has ever sat on a committee – particularly one organising a community event – will find something familiar in Alan Ayckbourn’s brilliantly observed farce currently playing at Sonning’s charming Mill theatre.

The action follows the planning and disastrous outcome of the small town of Pendon’s first ever community pageant - The massacre of the Pendon Twelve, based on a little-known piece of local history in which an uprising of rebellious workers was crushed by the authorities.

As the plans progress across a series of meetings in a shabby hotel, the committee is riven by divisions of class, politics, personality and very different views of what the pageant represents and how it should be performed. By the time pageant day arrives the rifts have opened into chasms – but what could possibly go wrong?

The play’s razor sharp script shows Ayckbourn’s gift for distilling the absurd from ordinary people in everyday situations. By exaggerating the ridiculous he holds up a mirror to just about every committee anyone has ever sat  - or, if you are a reporter, reported - on.

All the archetypes are here – the weak chairman who struggles to control the meeting, the ‘professional’ committee member who is a stickler for procedure; the bombast who tries to dominate; the pointless droner who makes proceedings drag on interminably; the mouse who says nothing whatsoever.

And with the play essentially set around a meeting room table up until the riotous final scene, it falls to the characters to drive he action. Each one is perfectly realised with expert comic timing by the strong cast, which includes Louise Jameson of Dr Who, Tenko and Bergerac fame.

Often hilarious, never less than witty and with some standout comic moments, Ten Times Table is great fun and perfectly suited to the intimate setting of the Mill’s cosy theatre. Add in the theatre’s trademark pre-show dinner and you have the perfect recipe for a great night out.