Imagine three couples in a dinner party no-one wants to be at, yet caught by sundry kinds of social obligations, and back-stories. Naturally they drink too much, eventually blurt out things they really shouldn’t. Here, the artfulness of the script lies in the use of flashback scenes to expose and explore some of those back-stories.

Premièred back in 1978, this proved one of the most successful of Roger Hall’s many social comedies, with an extended Wellington season, a New Zealand-made movie, and, in adapted form, a West End production that ran for 15 months. Manifestly, it’s a play that does work well. The challenge now is to make it fresh.

This Dan Pengelly-directed production is indeed good and fresh, with a well-chosen cast. It is set back in 1977 – OMG, over 40 years’ ago, already in ‘another country’! Its costuming and set design, by Sean Coyle, feel right for that era.

Simon Ferry is entirely credible as Colin Wilson, despite one’s admittedly faded recollections of Grant Tilly in that role. Colin, once an idealistic teacher, has been deputy principal at an urban secondary school, a job he didn’t much want, and has been obliged, due to the pressure of other folks’ expectations, to apply for and accept promotion to principal, a job he wants even less. His one attempt to escape into an alternative life has come to nothing. Tired though he is on the evening of the last day of term, he has to try to play hospitable host, which mainly involves cheerily re-filling glasses.

Julie Edwards as his spouse Elizabeth is bleakly efficient, as a dutiful wife, mother of offstage offspring and now, hostess, who is going to a lot of effort to make things nice without being adequately appreciated, and has to cope when they turn to custard. Her scene in their bedroom with her husband is a highlight.

The veteran Greg Johnson plays the cynical teachers’ college lecturer Reg in his own way, as a rough, sometimes verbally brutal character, who at some points imparts plenty of energy into the action. Amanda Tollemache plays his wife Isobel as a woman who has to struggle to keep her poise, and mostly does. She rises well to defending her son’s future. 

As for the young couple, Aaron Ward does very well as Robert, and Danielle Mason, with more acting opportunities as his wife Judy, is really excellent. But they’re all splendid. 

The production moves along with good, sure rhythms. The play’s well-known last lines (which I may not have exactly right), Elizabeth’s “What do we do now?”, and Colin’s, “What we do now, Elizabeth, is the dishes”, are delivered quite quietly, which is interesting, and brave.

Sean Coyle has provided a set split three ways, with the sitting room central, the Wilsons’ bedroom stage-left and Judy’s bed-sitter stage-right, each area effectively isolated by Talya Pilcher’s lighting.

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