Ingredient X

Coke, booze, co-dependency, video games, plastic surgery, 'The X Factor', that second plate of curry - addiction culture in all its varied glory is the hammered-home subject of Nick Grosso's 'Ingredient X' at the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

A four-hander set in one home over a single night, it's not without moments of wit or tension but it suffers from a single-minded fixation on its subject that deters dramatic engagement. Opinionated, raucous Rosanna (Lesley Sharp) and amiable, self-deluding Deanne (Lisa Palfrey) are at the home of their infinitely tolerant friend Katie (Indira Varma) and her recovering-addict partner, Frank (James Lance), for a night of reality TV, take-away nosh, passive-aggressive needling and self-important exhortation.

Sharp and Palfrey are engaging presences throughout, even if the former seems at times to be channelling Catherine Tate's Nan character, but Varma and Lance struggle to do much with their characters' worthy therapy-speak. Directed by Deborah Bruce, the production has a static, neutral feel punctuated by spurts of nicely choreographed jostling.

The main problem is the dearth of dramatic tension. Minor crises related to the characters' neuroses swell and dissipate to little end, clogged by spiels didactically illustrative of one aspect of addiction or another. Dependency is a subject of considerable interest. You just wish Grosso could wean himself off it long enough to tell a story you could care about.