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Norfolk, May 2004: Peter (Nick Waring), a fortysomething teacher and unpublished author, is back from London for the weekend to visit his father and sister, with a couple of bottles of Pouilly-Fuissé (‘“purely fussy”, as we smart Londoners say’) and a lot of emotional baggage. Sparks, inevitably, are going to fly. Fast-forward six years, to May 2010, and those sparks are still flying – while, back in the capital, the three main political parties struggle to form a coalition government.
So runs the premise of this new play by Giles Cole, a former actor and a founder member of The Terrence Rattigan Society. Family get-togethers are a perennially popular dramatic set-up, and this one looks promising at first, as Peter clashes with his embittered, disabled father Brian (Ralph Watson) and his sister Ros (Patience Tomlinson) tries desperately to keep the peace.
Unfortunately, things go quickly downhill. The sudden flash-forward to 2010 is never explained and, in act two, the introduction of a new character, Tory PR executive Jacqui (Amy Rockson), falls flat. From there, we are presented with one issue after another – enough for at least five separate plays – as the story lurches towards a denouement that is both unconvincing and, frankly, icky.
Still, Joana Dias’s Norfolk-kitchen set is nice – all varnished pine and wall-mounted plates – and there are some credible performances. Waring does his best to bring out both Peter’s ire and his disappointment, while Tomlinson proves herself a trooper, performing with a black eye (covered by a patch) after sustaining an accident early in the run. Such chutzpah deserves a better showcase.