Dinner by Moira Buffini, Kay House Duryard, Exeter University.

5✩✩✩✩✩ Review: Cormac Richards.

“As good a production of a play I will see all year.”

The dinner party from hell is a tried and trusted setting for writers, from Shakespeare’s ‘Titus Andronicus’ to Graham Greene’s novel ‘Doctor Fischer of Geneva’ to Peter Greenaway’s film, ‘The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover’  – hosts setting up to humiliate their guests whilst offering a menu packed with different levels of unpalatability. Moira Buffini’s 2022 play, ‘Dinner’, is cut of the same cloth. Hostess Paige has carefully curated an evening of food, games and trickery for her chosen guests all to celebrate the publication of her husband’s new book.

Buffini douses the whole play in metaphor and double-meaning whilst imbuing her characters with their own inadequacies and shortcomings; they aren’t a nice bunch. As the guests arrive, the meal of Primordial Soup, Screaming Apocalypse of Lobster and Frozen Waste dessert are served by the spectral figure of the silent butler whose true role in the proceedings you have to wait for. When an unexpected and rather mysterious guest arrives, the layers of the onion begin to be removed.

The play veers between philosophical chit chat and broad comedy, to mystery, intrigue and verbal (and physical) fisticuffs peppered delivered by sharp and filthy tongues; it is a challenge to deliver to an audience.

Exeter University Theatre Company’s production is exceptional. A sharp, confident and attacking presentation of the play which is directed by Fern Boston with considerable skill.

The simple dining table setting is perfectly arranged with very obvious care and attention to detail; which is extended into excellent costume choices. Lighting and sound are spot on and the use of Bjork’s ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’ to punctuate the scenes is an ideal selection, given the volume arc of the play.

I doubt I will see many finer cast ensembles than here; as strong a group of actors as you could want to watch perform. Leading the way is Isabella Maunder as the host, Paige, a performance of such sublime elegance; dripping with vicious wit, sarcasm and knowing artifice – an hugely impressive actor who commands the stage from the off. Geffen Katz-Kaye is, seemingly happy-go-lucky and self-satisfied as Paige’s husband Lars, but the actor displays a huge range of emotions as the action unfolds and illustrates his stage skills to the full. The least self-satisfied of the guests comes in the form of Wynne, an Earth Mother type; a cracking portrayal from Charlie Holland who squeezes all the humour from the role which counterpoints her horror at the proceedings she is a part of. Tristan Berry’s Hal, a microbiologist, is another example of an actor with enormous range, an edgy, insecure character given to extremes; Berry swings between the light-hearted and the intense with wondrous ease. As Hal’s TV news presenter wife, Siân, Sasha Hawksworth likewise gives as good as she gets; utterly believable in her portrayal of the character. The sudden arrival of the unexpected guest – possibly Buffini’s version of the Common Man in the midst of these monstrous humans – presents Mike; we don’t know who he really is, but it doesn’t really matter, he is a device and Oli Silverman imbues him with a likeable charm as he inveigles his way into the dinner party, before offering some home truths to those present – a carefully moderated and winning performance.  Overseeing the whole is the ever present, obliging (but only to Paige) and imposing butler; Dylan Swift spends nearly the whole play silent, but his presence is unsettling throughout; immobile of face and handling untold numbers of props, this is a performance of hidden depths and unerring threat; it is first rate.

A cast without a single weak link and working as one.

The Director and Assistant Director, Caspar Jansa, have used their roles to great effect; the pace of the play has been considered and executed by the cast – the overlapping dialogue, the lengthy silences serve to create the tension and keep the production moving. The shocks, when they come, do just that to the audience – shock! A static set such as this needs movement and, here again, the direction has provided that variation which never allows the 90 minute running time (no interval) to drag.

The challenge ahead for the Company is to reduce the play to 50 minutes for a transfer to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August – I have little doubt this will be done with the skill and precision of the longer version and may even ramp up the juxtaposition of comedy (and it is very funny) and drama more.  

‘Dinner’ is not a likeable play – the characters are largely unsympathetic and there is no emotional pull at all – except maybe revulsion, but when you see a production as bold and as well performed as this, you cannot but praise it to the hilt.

 

Cast

Isabella Maunder – Paige

Geffen Katz-Kaye – Lars

Charlie Holland – Wynne

Tristan Berry – Hal

Sasha Hawksworth – Siân

Oli Silverman – Mike

Dylan Sweet – The Waiter

 

Creatives

Writer – Moira Buffini

Director – Fern Boston

Assistant Director – Caspar Jansa

Creative Producer – Lottie Walker

Assistant Producer – Ruby Bridges

Stage Manager - Emma Castell

Tech & Assistant Stage Manager – Mia Ushakov

Costume Design – Kate Spalding

Co-Marketing & Fundraising Manager – Maia Marwa

Co-Marketing & Fundraising Manager – Emily Shaw-Goodall

Photographer – Ophelia Fellhauer