While Alan Ayckbourn's newest work tours the UK, one of his oldest - How The Other Half Loves is being rekindled by Ross-on-Wye's Phoenix Theatre Company.

For the same reason that The Good Life will run and run on BBC2, there is something comfortingly nostalgic about early Ayckbourn. And this 1969 drama is living room hostility at its best.

Three couples' lives intertwine in work and play, with two - and sometimes all three - on stage at once, acting independently.

It's precision theatre, and director Angela Mason does not let the side down - with doors opening and closing; phones ringing and doorbells buzzing.

Revealed is a world of soapflakes and avocado, where wives know where everything lives and make their husbands breakfast.

It's the disparate life scenario that Ayckbourn specialises in - the everyday unhappinesses.

The script is the biggest star of the night but Patrick O'Reilly's set comes close second.

The cast settled into their roles nicely on opening night with Howard Owen's bumbling Frank Foster being a notable achievement (this is a big ask for any amateur).

The ladies in the piece all make a nice job of it, each adding flesh to the bones of what could otherwise be 'three women on the verge of a nervous breakdown'.

Newcomer Matt Gorle makes a confident stab at the young foil, William Featherstone and the only thing Derek Wood lacked for me as womanising Bob was passion.

Julie Harries