Fondue and infidelity in the suburbs

Roger Hall’s iconic play puts middle age under the microscope and remains one of New Zealand’s funniest and most poignant plays.

The story of Middle Age Spread centres on Colin, the deputy principal of a city high school. He's a reluctant applicant for the principal's job-as the pressures of school life don't encourage him to seek this promotion. At home his wife Elizabeth has settled into the role of an increasingly disinterested partner.

As the play begins, she's giving a dinner party to which four friends have been invited. One of them is Judy, a teacher who has had a temporary job at Colin's school. She's with her husband-but the two have had a long separation and have been reconciled only for the sake of the children. Two other neighbours make up the guests at the dinner party-and what happens during the evening makes for a unique "comedy of bad manners."

The dinner party is only part of this play - flashbacks reveal the secrets of all the dinner guests, most importantly the growing love affair between Colin (who has taken up jogging in an effort to combat his spreading waistline) and Judy. The climax, which ends the dinner and also the film, is electric.

What the author has achieved is a wry comment on present-day society and presents his audiences with a mirror of themselves to delight and entertain. Six marvelous parts for actors

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