Truths are revealed, loyalties are tested, and lobsters are sacrificed in this confidently performed revival of Moira Buffini’s dinner party from hell.
Hosting the party is acerbic Paige (Matsume Kai), a mercurial host with a seemingly intimate relationship with the equally as hard to decipher waiter (Talitha Christina), who has arranged the dinner in honour of her successful philosopher and terribly pompous husband Lars (Matt Mowat).
At first glance, it is a terrific collection of oddballs that would not look out of place in an all-time classic of Come Dine With Me. Alongside acid-tongued Paige and belittled Lars appear Wynne (Rebecca Joy Wilson), dumped by her politician partner and an old flame of Lars, newsreader sex symbol Siân (Clarisse Zamba) and her goofy microbiologist husband Hal (Oliver Maynard). Thrown together, it is a recipe for disaster, yet the awkward chitchat between these, who all represent the higher classes of society, and even more awkward culinary choices bring terrific entertainment, catalysed when van driver Mike (Theo Woolford) gatecrashed, literally and metaphorically.
It is a production and a script that works far better when the characters clash as a mass rather than in some of the slower, less intense duologues. Kai succeeds in bringing to the fore Paige’s unsettling side, seemingly hell-bent on getting revenge on a husband who appears to have forgotten her. Paige starts as a party host more in Hyacinth Bucket mode, insisting on refinement and perfection, but becomes something more sinister as the characters all fall to her carefully manipulated choices throughout the night, with Kai effective in holding great poise and stillness, calmly, and perhaps cruelly, observing those in attendance and revelling in the chaos that unfolds.
While Paige is the most entertaining, she is also the most layered character, whereas the others almost fall into caricatures and stereotypes. Mowat’s Lars is self-righteous and arrogant, while vegetarian Wynne screams and scowls, with Wilson effective in emphasising Wynne’s moral outrage at just about everything.
Meanwhile, Maynard’s Hal desperately tries to shrug off his nerdier label, especially when trying to impress Woolford’s working-class Mike, though it is a shame his traumatic past relationship, brought up with great pain, is as quickly moved on from as it is introduced, while Zamba’s Siân is a breath of fresh air, willingly indulgent in her desires and wishes, and not quite conforming to the moral superiority the other characters claim to possess.
Where this production does succeed, though, is in the deft touch of its design. Tara Usher’s set design, replicating a traditional Japanese dining room, is well-integrated into David Fairs and Conor O’Kane’s direction to enhance the awkwardness of the party. Characters wriggle on small cushions and sit uncomfortably, almost on the floor, while Paige sits calmly and with great grace, emphasising her role in the ringmaster for this circus of a meal.
It all culminates in a shocking, unexpected twist, which the cast delivers with aplomb, exploring the desire for something more in life in the most devastating way possible. While it meanders a little in the second half, Dinner succeeds in mixing the worst possible people with the worst possible dinner choices to still find a winning recipe.
