Mr Whatnot

Alan Ayckbourn’s rarely-seen early play is presented on its 50th anniversary as part of the Made In Northampton season, directed by Spymonkey collaborator Cal McCrystal.

In this hilarious fish-out-of-water tale, a naïve but imaginative piano tuner is summoned to the stately home of Lord and Lady Slingsby-Craddock. A case of mistaken identity leads to an increasingly surreal series of encounters over a summer weekend, as Ayckbourn combines a tribute to the physical comedy of the silent movie era with very British obsessions with class, cucumber sandwiches and bed-hopping.