Confusions is one of Sir Alan Ayckbourn's best loved and wittiest plays. It is actually a series of five interconnected one-act plays, and was first staged in 1976 played by just five actors. The scenes are all loosely linked by characters or locations, but more subtly through the universal underlying themes of obsession, isolation and the basic desire for companionship and of course the humour with which they are portrayed.

First of all, we meet Lucy who spends so much time at home with the kids, that she's started to treat everyone - even the next-door neighbours - like children. Her wayward salesman husband, Harry, is miles away in a hotel, and has other things on his mind - namely, the charms of Paula and Bernice. Their waiter also has other concerns - the rapidly deteriorating relationships of diners Polly and Martin, and Mr and Mrs Pearce, for instance.

Five people then meet on four park benches and converse, which is perhaps an understatement as no-one appears to be listening to anyone else. Mrs Pearce is then invited to open a village fete - but can't possibly have any inkling of the mayhem which is about to ensue, when silly Milly's little mishap is broadcast across the whole village. All the characters are blessed with marvellous eccentricity and yet subdued with those feelings of futility and loneliness.

"I've always been admirer of Alan Ayckbourn's plays" says director Liz Whitehouse, "so when Confusions was suggested I agreed to direct it. Most companies only perform three of the plays, but I decided to present all of them."

Liz has been involved in theatre most of her life, beginning with ballet at the age of three, having drama lessons at school, and joining in operatics and plays whilst working in West Africa, and continuing to participate in a variety of musical and straight plays since settling in Worcester thirty years ago.

This is her first venture into directing a full night's entertainment although she has produced one-act plays, Trial by Jury, The Zoo, and 'potted' versions of Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance and The Grand Duke.

Tickets for Confusions from the 9th - 12th May 2007 at 7.30pm are available now for £8.50 (£7.50 Concessions) from the box office 01905 770154 or via the internet from www.norburytheatre.co.uk using our TicketWeb Link.