Dinner
Moira
Buffini’s black comedy starred Harriet Walter as the
heartless hostess from hell in the West End some years
ago, and it’s cheering to see a fledgling company, Acorn
Productions, make such a creditable stab at this dire and
delightful dinner party.
is hosting the bizarre banquet for her unfaithful
philosopher husband, Lars, who’s just published a new book
that she hasn’t read. The other guests are a Molly
Parkin-style outlandish feminist artist and a svelte
television newsreader and her microbiologist
spouse.
What’s
on the menu? Primordial Soup, Apocalypse of Lobster (kill
it yourself if you want to eat it) and Frozen Waste as a
dessert. Yum yum. Oh, and there’s also an unexpected
guest: the chap who’s just robbed the house next door and
has crashed his van in a ditch.
The
dialogue is barbed and spiteful, even if the insistent
jokes about getting whatever you want on the internet now
sound a little dated.
Anna
Fox’s production is a fine showcase for some talented
Oxford graduates, notably Charlotte Mulliner as Paige in
a little black dress, Alice Pearse as the artist, and
Alfie Enoch – one of the other kids in the
Harry Potter movies – as Mike the van
driver, thief and token nice guy.
