Three young women step into a pool – an inflatable paddling pool – and share NIPS: Negative, Interesting and Positive news of their days. And nips of straight gin (is that really a thing these day: straight gin?). This much was the premise and main action for the 10-minute Short+Sweet 2016 sketch that won Catherine Zulver the Best Script award.

Now a night in their lives has become a year in their lives, playing out over 75 minutes. The concise visual and conceptual ‘in it together’ metaphor – the poor persons’ spa pool – is now part of a very cluttered flat set (no design credit but production manager Sarah Wood has clearly worked hard) choked with furniture, a fridge, a washing machine, food, crockery, clothes, books, posters … And the booze bottles, of course. So we now have to accept the pool as more of a naturalistic reality than a metaphorical device.

Zulver’s script is a bit like a sit-com in that the dialogue is a neatly articulate exchange of verbiage. While it is not obsessed with getting a laugh every third line it is more inclined to tell rather than show, let alone give the characters space to ‘be’. Nevertheless once we tune into the style, the revealing of their backstories and development of their lives and relationships hold our attention –thanks to good action blocking and pacing from director Imogen Prosser.

Jayne Grace’s Fran, the oldest on the 20s/30s cusp, is a nanny who diverts her (non)relationship issues into attempting to write steamy romantic fiction. The vulnerability behind her sardonic demeanour is dramatically revealed.

Catherine Zulver’s Kate, who works in an Italian restaurant, wears her heart on her sleeve and is very self-critical, rooted in mother issues and more immediately in her evolving relationship with her much older boss, Giovanni. It is this that leads to the play’s highly dramatic climax.

Charlotte Thomas arrives as the newbie flatmate Daniella, leaving home and her mother for the first time and re-evaluating the imperatives of her Catholic upbringing. As an electrician she is having to deal with patronising male colleagues on a daily basis and she grows in strength in the process.

All three give strong, confident accounts of their characters and the changing dynamics of their relationships – and it all comes to a head in a final ten minutes that pay off our investment in time and attention.

To summarise, then:

Negative: An awkward transition from stylised realism to pseudo-naturalism.

Interesting: The revealing of issues and concerns of 20-something women who know their lives need to move on from this phase – but where to and how?

Positive: The twists that avoid predictability; the whole-hearted commitment of everyone involved; the riveting climax and the resolving denouement

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