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Hidden Laughter
The idyllic lives of Harry and Louise are put into a different perspective after a visit from their local vicar
81 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1990
About the author
Simon Gray
138 books12 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE (21 October 1936 – 7 August 2008) was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years. While teaching at Queen Mary, Gray began his writing career as a novelist in 1963 and, during the next 45 years, in addition to 5 published novels, wrote 40 original stage plays, screenplays, and screen adaptations of his own and others' works for stage, film, and television and became well known for the self-deprecating wit characteristic of several volumes of memoirs or diaries
Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE (21 October 1936 – 7 August 2008) was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years. While teaching at Queen Mary, Gray began his writing career as a novelist in 1963 and, during the next 45 years, in addition to 5 published novels, wrote 40 original stage plays, screenplays, and screen adaptations of his own and others' works for stage, film, and television and became well known for the self-deprecating wit characteristic of several volumes of memoirs or diaries
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May 12, 2017
This play by the distinguished playwright Simon Gray is both farce and tragicomedy. At least, that is how I read it. Well, maybe not quite so much of the farce -- but I was laughing out loud at certain scenes that I thought had more than a touch of the farcical about it. I sincerely hope that I was correct in guffawing uncontrollably. I do believe that a mild country vicar's physical attack on a intolerably rude London author in the garden of a weekend home in Devon, is in fact very funny ... But did Gray intend it to be funny? I think anyone who has stayed with me thus far, will begin to perceive that I am on shaky ground here. So clearly I am not going to claim that I walked away from this slim volume with total comprehension and a keenness to analyze its various elements in an insightful and responsible fashion to all comers. What follows is my take on the play, and if I'm way off course here, I urge those who are better equipped to write this review to observe a moment of silence for my inappropriate musings.
As the curtain rises on the garden of a house in the Devon countryside, Harry and Louise Pertwee (a couple from London) are in the throes of making a final decision as far as the purchasing of a country getaway is concerned. They think that they have found the ideal place -- although there are little niggling doubts about their ability to afford it. Furthermore, Louise's starry-eyed plans to devote herself to her writing instead of going back to teaching, does not sit well with her literary agent husband. He is obviously not that convinced of his wife's talents in this department --taking as his justification a fragment of writing she showed him a while ago -- but typical of this pair, none of this is brought out into the open. In the same way, Louise's obsessive worrying over her children and Harry's tendency to indulge in adulterous affairs are swept under the carpet.
The play concerns itself with the inevitable disillusions that, over a period of nine years, slowly begin to undermine the perceived delights of country living. This process starts early on, when the local Church of England vicar, Ronnie Chambers, wanders in and promptly exhibits a startlingly unconventional viewpoint (for a man of the cloth) on the difficulties attendant on achieving true faith -- and in Ronnie's case a sympathetic condoning of the lack of it in his parishioners. The man who displays an indignant reaction to this, is Harry's father Ben -- recently widowed and the source of fifty per cent of the money being put up for the purchase of the cottage.
As the years march on and the children Nigel and Natalie grow up and the adult Pertwees themselves evolve into people very different from the idealistic and slightly pretentious ones we first meet, their world comes under attack from all kinds of large and small calamities, including marital infidelities, generation gap issues, a potentially life-threatening disease, and a devastating accident brought on by the irresponsible actions of Ben Pertwee. Simon Gray has a whale of a time wreaking havoc on the Pertwees and their middle class sensibilities, illustrating aptly how an idyll can be chipped away at until only a rather sobering reality remains. The last scene hinges on tragedy as Ronnie Chambers is placed on the horns of a dilemma in trying to be accommodating to both Harry and Louise when in actual fact their hopes for an acceptable future are in direct conflict. The curtain falls before any little blocks can be neatly ticked; but judging by what has been played out in the preceding pages, it would be fairly accurate to say that their desires and wishes must of necessity remain unfulfilled.
As the curtain rises on the garden of a house in the Devon countryside, Harry and Louise Pertwee (a couple from London) are in the throes of making a final decision as far as the purchasing of a country getaway is concerned. They think that they have found the ideal place -- although there are little niggling doubts about their ability to afford it. Furthermore, Louise's starry-eyed plans to devote herself to her writing instead of going back to teaching, does not sit well with her literary agent husband. He is obviously not that convinced of his wife's talents in this department --taking as his justification a fragment of writing she showed him a while ago -- but typical of this pair, none of this is brought out into the open. In the same way, Louise's obsessive worrying over her children and Harry's tendency to indulge in adulterous affairs are swept under the carpet.
The play concerns itself with the inevitable disillusions that, over a period of nine years, slowly begin to undermine the perceived delights of country living. This process starts early on, when the local Church of England vicar, Ronnie Chambers, wanders in and promptly exhibits a startlingly unconventional viewpoint (for a man of the cloth) on the difficulties attendant on achieving true faith -- and in Ronnie's case a sympathetic condoning of the lack of it in his parishioners. The man who displays an indignant reaction to this, is Harry's father Ben -- recently widowed and the source of fifty per cent of the money being put up for the purchase of the cottage.
As the years march on and the children Nigel and Natalie grow up and the adult Pertwees themselves evolve into people very different from the idealistic and slightly pretentious ones we first meet, their world comes under attack from all kinds of large and small calamities, including marital infidelities, generation gap issues, a potentially life-threatening disease, and a devastating accident brought on by the irresponsible actions of Ben Pertwee. Simon Gray has a whale of a time wreaking havoc on the Pertwees and their middle class sensibilities, illustrating aptly how an idyll can be chipped away at until only a rather sobering reality remains. The last scene hinges on tragedy as Ronnie Chambers is placed on the horns of a dilemma in trying to be accommodating to both Harry and Louise when in actual fact their hopes for an acceptable future are in direct conflict. The curtain falls before any little blocks can be neatly ticked; but judging by what has been played out in the preceding pages, it would be fairly accurate to say that their desires and wishes must of necessity remain unfulfilled.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review