Pauline Flannery reviews the Orange Tree Theatre's production of Torben Betts' Muswell Hill

In a kitchen setting more Heals than Ikea, Mat (Leon Ockenden); would-be writer and his wife Jess (Jasmine Hyde); breadwinner and successful accountant, prepare for a dinner party. Monkfish, avocado and prawns ("reassuringly 70s") feature on the menu. More upmarket than the cheese nibbles of Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party, yet just as recognisable as signs of the upwardly mobile, Muswell Hill offers a reverential nod to Leigh’s laconic style with its slow burn. Texts and message alerts, in simplified counterpoint, inter-cut the action as the fragmented evening dips and dives. Whilst news of the Haitian earthquake in 2010, filtered through the net or the mobile phone, concludes as a mother is reunited with her child.

Muswell Hill is Torben Betts’ third play at the Orange Tree, after The Company Man in 2010, and Clockwatchng in 2001. Tragic in essence, they are notable for their often agonisingly, prickly comedy. Muswell Hill is no exception. The play shows the fragility behind the middle class idyll of success, as the Haitian earthquake razes people’s homes and spiritual aspirations to the ground.

Jess, in chic brocaded black, refers to the evening as a soiree but this is more to get a reaction from Mat, whose attention is absorbed by either the computer or mobile screen. It is the state of things to come. Their guests, a rich crew of rufflers, are: Karen, a Marie Curie nurse "hanging out with the dead and the dying"; Simon who is like some kind of savant, socially inadequate figure and a fount of knowledge both trivial and important; Jess’ vulnerable sister, Annie, twenty-three, would-be actress/singer, engaged to a theatre director; and Tony, complete with pony tail and earring, three times Annie’s age and a serial roué, who spats in Shakespearian quotes with Simon.

It is Simon, in an act of dissonance, like his favoured composer Shostakovitch, who tries to shape a truthful response. And it is Simon who gives us a political perspective, the origins of Irn Bru, Chilean wine, Shakespeare and just about anything else whilst Karen, despite her initial antipathy, sees him as attractive in a "Ted Bundy kind-of-way."

Betts writes actor-friendly dialogue that the cast of Muswell Hill relish. His observations are sharply delineated with more than a sense of a biographical touch. Each character has moments which are tragic, comic or shocking in a real life mash-up, as, between courses, the evening spirals out of control. The most touching is Karen (Katie Hayes) who ends by narrating a story about a hermit, a dog, maggots and licking tongues which prefaces a most dignified exit. Yet it is difficult sometimes to see the through-line in the play, as there are multiple motivations to reconcile, all with rich contexts which sometimes feel too big for the play’s domestic format.

Yet the cast, which also includes Dan Starkey as Simon, Tala Gouveia as Annie and Timothy Block as Tony, are uniformly good. Sam Walters’ direction gets every bit of nuance out of the text and takes full advantage of the Orange Tree’s in-the- round setting. With a clever design by Robyn Wilson, complete with fully functioning kitchen, Muswell Hill is enjoyable. Yes, it recalls Leigh and yes it recalls Ayckbourn, but it also shows Torben Betts as a playwright with an original voice.

Details:

Muswell Hill plays at Orange Tree Theatre until 10 March

1 Clarence Street, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 2SA

7:45pm

Tickets: £11 - £21

For more information or to book, visit: www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk/book-now/