Formans owner’s play opens at Ed Fringe – directed by his daughter

It’s the early 80s at Cambridge. Geoffrey Cormick is up against his arch nemesis, Gideon Mellor, to become the next president of the Union Society, with the final vote cast by the audience.

Lance Anisfeld – the great grandson of the founder of H Forman & Son and best known for supplying the community and indeed the wider foodie community with arguably the best smoked salmon in the world – wrote his debut play This Side of the House 37 years ago soon after he stepped down as Cambridge Union Society President.

“My opponent was a fiercely political student who had always wanted to become president whereas for me it only became an ambition once I was there,” says Anisfeld. “I felt it was an interesting story and one that I really wanted to tell so I sat down and wrote it in a play format.”

He pitched it far and wide and producer Harry Saltzman (of James Bond fame) expressed interest in 1987 but he turned it down when it became clear that a career in playwriting was not Anisfeld’s dream.

Fast forward to January 2024 and his daughter Annabel, a drama graduate of NYU Tisch, spotted the play on Anisfeld’s bookshelves. She took it down, read it and declared it to be “really good!” She decided to bring it to the stage and not only produces and directs, but also stars.

Anisfeld says: “The play uncovers the dark side of relationships – professional and personal – and is filled with politically incorrect humour.”

Performed in three acts, we first see things through the eyes of the seriously political student who is set on becoming president. In Act Two we see the same scenario from the perspective of his opponent, a flamboyant joker. The audience are asked to vote and we one of two possible endings in Act Three.

The script is unchanged from the original and despite the 37-year hiatus since it was written the issues covered are pertinent today – notably racism (including antisemitism) and political corruption.

Anisfeld is heading to Edinburgh this week to see his play being performed. I’ve asked him to let me have an honest review. Watch this space.

This Side of the House is at Edinburgh Fringe until Saturday. Tickets at tickets.edfringe.com