By Helen Musa

When Canberra Rep lifts the curtain on its 2026 season later this week, it does so with the company’s most-produced modern playwright.

Alan Ayckbourn, one of the most widely performed dramatists in the world, returns to the Rep stage in the form of Bedroom Farce, a comedy that observes the classical unity of time, turning a single night into a storm of marital mishaps.

Ayckbourn has written 92 plays, translated into more than 35 languages, and no fewer than 14 of his works have been staged by Rep. Bedroom Farce itself last appeared with the company in 1981. Now, decades later, it returns, seeming contemporary, in the hands of a director who truly understands Ayckbourn’s rhythms.

Director Aarne Neeme has been part of the Rep story for more than a dozen productions, with notable past credits including Just Between Ourselves, Arcadia, The Threepenny Opera, Witness for the Prosecution and A Doll’s House.

He tells me that Bedroom Farce is much more than a comedy of slammed doors and crossed wires in the tradition of French playwright Georges Feydeau; in his view, Ayckbourn endures because of his humanity.

Describing the plot as covering “a hectic night in which three bedrooms are presented simultaneously on stage and the action flows in and out from one to another”, Neeme says the evening begins with promise. Ernest and Delia (Pat Gallagher and Sally Rynveld) are marking their wedding anniversary, while Malcolm and Kate (Lachlan Abrahams and Antonia Kitzel) are preparing for a housewarming party, and Nick (Rob de Fries) is confined to bed with a bad back.

But peace is not on the agenda. Trevor and Susannah (James Grudnoff and Lara Connolly) descend upon each household in turn, and the plot thickens as Ayckbourn’s intricate machinery takes centre stage.

Three bedrooms coexist on stage at once – a challenge for veteran set designer Russell Brown. Scenes overlap. Conversations collide. Doors open at the wrong moment. The night unravels into chaos, with some spectacular fight choreography.

“It’s a play full of movement, mischief and emotional truth,” Neeme says.

For him, Ayckbourn’s brilliance lies beneath the laughter. He sees in the play not only farce, but recognition: the fragile negotiations of long-term relationships, the small grievances that grow large in the dark, the absurdity and tenderness of shared lives.

In Neeme’s hands, then, Bedroom Farce is likely to be much more than a comedy of errors.

Bedroom Farce, Canberra Rep Theatre, Acton, February 19-March 7.