Dinner

Published Friday 15 February 2008 at 15:30 by Catherine Usher

From the moment the play opens and the sombre, sharply-suited waiter skulks about the scarcely lit room preparing the table for dinner, while the audience members take their seats, it’s clear this play has a heavy dose of blackness in its comedy.

Preparing for a sophisticated dinner party hosted by Paige (Trudi Boatwright) and Lars (Nick Kneller), the pair generate the type of frosty atmosphere that almost makes you want to head for the door. But Paige is so hostile and cutting, her behaviour grips the audience, who can only wonder how brutally she’s going to insult her partner or even her guests next.

Although the actors battle admirably with the tools they have been given - Lainey Shaw’s Wynne is the adorably dippy hippy and Sian (Nila-Louise Cotter) is the dismissive vamp with an enviable job as a television presenter - all the guests at the soiree are distractingly stereotypical.

From the top of Wynne’s dishevelled mop of hair down to Sian’s fishnets and killer heels, none of the characters deviate from their caricature depiction. On top of that, all but Wynne aren’t even sympathetic personalities. It’s like the cast of a Richard Curtis film without the charisma. And it does make you wonder why any of them would want to share the same postcode as each other, let alone socialise by choice.

Having said that, as with any dinner party there are some memorable moments and when stranger Mike (Davin Eadie) arrives to shake things up, the change in dynamics of this carefully-orchestrated evening is fun to observe. But the cliches continue as class divisions are not only drawn up but debated clumsily - with author Moira Buffini seemingly wanting to imply that many assumptions are justified.

The far more enjoyable aspect to observe is the cleverly portrayed battle between the competitive women Paige and Sian, who try to out-flirt each other by seducing both Mike and the waiter (Oliver Wallace) in equal measure. It is in this subtle interaction that the strength of the play lies, and indeed where Boatwright and Cotter excel, but unfortunately it moves on all too swiftly to its dramatic, yet highly implausible, end.