Ayckbourn, Alan | Stefan Kanfer (essay date 1992)
Stefan Kanfer (essay date 1992)
SOURCE: A review of A Small Family Business, in The New Leader, Vol. LXXV, No. 7, June 1-15, 1992, p. 31.
[In the following excerpt, Kanfer reviews Ayckbourn's A Small Family Business.]
Alan Ayckbourn's A Small Family Business, a British import, can be enjoyed on two levels: The action takes place upstairs and downstairs in a suburban house. Jack McCracken (Brian Murray) is a British executive with a short fuse and a vast ego. His father-in-law, Ken Ayers (Thomas Hill), has grown too potty to carry on at Ayers and Graces, a failing furniture manufacturing concern. So Jack leaves the frozen food business and takes over, gathering the family around for a pep talk. From now, he vows, matters will be different. Squabbles, inefficiency, white-collar theft will be replaced with the only things that matter: honesty, decency and above all “simple basic trust.” For without these the...
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