Ernest Thompson's play began life off-Broadway, although On Golden Pond is far better known for the 1981 film version featuring Henry and Jane Fonda. It is also, as a quick Google search reveals, a popular name for retirement homes: which is apt given that it is an unhurried dramatisation of an elderly couple settling contentedly into their dotage.
Norman and Ethel Thayer have spent the past 48 summers at their rustic retreat beside a tranquil lake in Maine. But this year Norman can't seem to settle down, and spends his time scanning the local papers to see if there is any suitable employment for an 80-year-old former college professor with a weak heart. Ethel, who has had enough of this pacing around, implores: "Why can't you just pick berries, catch fish, read books and enjoy this sweet, sweet time?"
The answer, of course, is that a play wholly devoted to the woodland pursuits of the elderly would be as tedious as watching pine needles decompose, so Thompson introduces a dash of potential conflict in the form of the couple's daughter Chelsea, who arrives with her new partner, played by Keith Woodason, and his 13-year-old son in tow, and proposes that they leave the boy with the old folks for the season.
The stage seems set for rancour, recrimination and the airing of ancient family grievances as the Thayers' plans for a peaceful summer are thrown into turmoil. Yet it turns out that young Billy jnr helps Norman rediscover his inner adolescent. "If I'd known that all he needed in his life was a 13-year-old boy," Ethel purrs, "I'd have rented one years ago."
The New York Times critic, reviewing the original Broadway production, observed that it "took courage to write a play with so much affection in it", affection being perhaps the least affecting human quality to reproduce on stage. But Chris Monks' production delves beneath the placid surface to find some stirrings of drama, and paints a credible picture of uxorious devotion between Roy Sampson and Tina Gray as the Thayers.
But it is a long, rather complacent play in which very little happens - the film's celebrated capsizing scene was inserted to introduce a bit of drama, yet Thompson's original script stolidly refuses to rock the boat.
· Until 23 June. Box office: 01782 717962.
· This article was amended on Sunday June 24 2007. We said in error that the part of Billy Ray was played by Rowe David McClelland. That part is played by Keith Woodason and Mr McClelland plays the postman, Charlie. The name of the grandson is Billy jnr, not Ben. This has been corrected.
