This blistering comedy, which is, nonetheless, a black morality play, was first presented at the Nationasl Theatre in 1987, winning The Evening Standard Drama Award for best play of that year.

Ayres and Graces is under new management; the family-run furniture firm needs a strong leader to steer it into a new era. Welcome then to Jack McCracken, the founder’s son in law, as the new, honest, no-nonsense Managing Director.  But Jack is soon caught up in a family full of sleaze, dodgy dealing and personal nest-feathering, not to mention his own daughter’s brushes with the law.  

What with a “family” of Italians, a dishonest private detective and four houses in one set, this is one of Ayckbourn’s funniest award winning plays.

“Nordsky!  Nordsky! Where she hideyhole the little Angley-Sexy girl?  Here he come, Hairy Erik with his big meatey axey …” – Jack McCracken