The Cocktail Party (Print Room at the Coronet)

In the stunning interior of the Coronet, new home of the Print Room in Notting Hill, a temporary stage has been ingeniously raised to the height of the dress circle, and the Sprague-designed theatre is well on the way to being restored to its former glory.

It makes an elegant setting for this revival of TS Eliot’s 1949 play, The Cocktail Party. The original production starred Alec Guinness as the Unidentified Guest. In a 1950 interview he admitted to not knowing what the play meant, quoting Eliot himself who’d commented that it meant ‘whatever you take it to mean.’

This was all very gnomic but what does seem clear is that Eliot was working through some issues of his own – his wife had died unexpectedly and his own attachment for drama teacher Emily Hale was then in the spotlight.

In his play, the expectation of Celia Coplestone is that the newly freed Edward Chamberlayne – whose wife has left him abruptly – will now be willing to marry her. But of course it’s never that simple.

The play has a rich comic seam which is seized on with an irresistible sparkle by Marcia Warren as party stalwart Julia Shuttlethwaite, whose keen eye and eager interest in gossip make her a guest to be treated with caution by anyone with secrets to hide. Her opening scene, where she dominates an entire room, shows Eliot at his entertaining best, but thereafter the pace slows and there simply isn’t enough dynamism in the rather ponderous soul-searching that follows to sustain this long production’s energy levels.

Back in 1949 the play’s psychoanalysis and agonised sharing of repressed emotions must have seemed stunningly frank – even heart-wrenching. But sixty-five years on, these rambling exposés of feeling are in danger of sounding more like obsessive self-absorption than fascinating revelations.

Chloe Pirrie has a vulnerable appeal as Celia, but we don’t see enough of the spirit that leads her to undertake a new life, albeit with a hideous end in store. And Richard Dempsey‘s fresh-faced vigour feels at odds with Edward Chamberlayne’s supposed middle-aged weariness. Christopher Ravenscroft rises to the occasion as Alex, whose nasty experiments in the kitchen provide some welcome comic light relief.

Lighting designer David Plater‘s work is excellent throughout, while designer Richard Kent has clearly enjoyed dressing this elegant crowd, who all look wonderful. Abbey Wright has directed a carefully choreographed and slick production, but even lashings of guilt, sin and mystery aren’t quite enough to make this party go with a swing.

The Cocktail Party runs at the Print Room until 10 October 2015.