To Have and To Hold

“He talks about going to Switzerland, to that place where you pay them to kill you… And I say “go! It’ll do you good. Broaden your horizons…you’ve never been abroad!” After sixty years of marriage, happily settled into their retirement village in Yorkshire, Jack and Florence have elevated bickering almost to the status of high art. That said, they’re otherwise getting along fine with the support of a cousin and the hilarious interventions of the man known locally as ‘Rhubarb Eddie’. But will their anxious son, shuttling between London and LA, and their errant daughter, contemplating a move to Australia, leave them to live out their days in peace?  Richard Bean’s uproarious new comedy tackles the prickly problem of dealing with ageing parents who just don’t want to be dealt with! Writer of the international smash-hit comedy One Man, Two Guvnors, Bean returns to Hampstead after successes with Kiss Me and In the Club.  Work elsewhere includes Jack Absolute Flies Again (National Theatre), Young Marx (Bridge) and Made in Dagenham, The Musical (Adelphi). Director Richard Wilson returns to Hampstead after the success of his production of Peggy For You.  He is reunited with Bean whose plays Toast, Under the Whaleback (both Royal Court) and The Nap (Sheffield Crucible) he also directed.