Summer Again

In the garden of a remarkably youthful nonagenarian, a motley group of individuals spend a day confronting the absurdities of modern life, their inconsequential chatter masking deeper fears about the very nature of their existence, what one character Roddy neatly encapsulates with his plaintive refrain of "What does it all mean?" Designer Sam Dowson has created an ironic milieu, the cosy comfort of a rural garden belying the insecurity and angst of the drama's protagonists.

As 91-year-old Toby (Robin Parkinson) savours the prospect of acquiring a new garden, few of the other characters - with the exception of Joyce (Octavia Walters) - seem to share his sense of purpose. Daniel (Jack Sandle) is a young writer floundering for inspiration, his mother Ariadne (Miranda Foster) teeters on the brink of a shallow affair, his father Roddy (Robert Benfield) seems bewildered by life's developments, his yearning for a nostalgic past symbolised by the intermittent drone of a plane overhead. Daniel's girlfriend Joyce is angered by the war in Iraq and demands the same level of passionate conviction from those around her.

(Amanda Hodges)