THE MARCH TO RUSSIA Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond

The Richmond audience is mainly in the same age bracket as the characters in David Storey’s The March to Russia and they identified immediately with the elderly bickering couple (Ian Gelder and Sue Wallace) celebrating their 69th wedding anniversary with their neglectful middle-aged children. There are lots of laughs to be got from winding everybody up, but Storey’s drama is essentially sad and I suspect that a lot of people are going to feel terribly guilty on leaving the theatre and will be soon making phone calls and arranging long overdue visits.