Writer: Moira Buffini
Directors: David Fairs and Conor O’Kane
The Friday night streets in Clapham are heaving with revellers eating outside, but inside the beloved local theatre in the Old Town, there is another meal being prepared, a revival of the Olivier Award-winning (or Oliver as the programme tells us) and Bafta-nominated Moira Buffini’s Dinner.
The opening scene makes it clear through the news on in the background and a vintage Apple Mac on the table that this production has not been updated from its debut at the National Theatre. It’s set back in 2002 when Tony Blair was still secure in his position as prime minister, capitalism was booming, financial disaster and austerity unthinkable.
Guests are invited to dinner by Paige (Mastume Kai), an acerbically angry host who wishes to humiliate her husband Lars, in whose honour the gathering is being held to celebrate the release of his book on the psychology of living, in front of her carefully curated bourgeois guests. Invited is an artist played superbly by Rebecca Joy Wilson, and mismatched couple microbiologist (Oliver Maynard) and his journalist wife(the refreshingly down-to-earth Clarisse Zamba). They are waited upon by a silent attendant (genderswapped from the original), Talitha Christina, found on the internet by the hostess. Paige wishes to undermine and ridicule them all.
Revenge is on the menu, the minimalist courses are served to deride her guests, setting up a nightmare dinner party scenario, a familiar theatrical troupe trapping guests within both confined space and social norms.
The play is initially played for comedic effect, landing the comic one-liners, with Matt Mowat’s Lars rather Basil Fawlty-esque and with a pleasing feeling of slapstick, but this feeling fades. The first twist comes when a working-class delivery driver (Theo Woolford) crashes outside and is promptly invited to dine and expose the middle-class pretensions of the other diners.
Ultimately, this play rests on the power dynamic between the hostess and the hired waiter, whom she initially exerts her dominance by passionately kissing before the arrival of guests, though this is undermined somewhat, or at least made ambiguous, by the waiter seeming to reciprocate the unwanted advance. The second half lacks flow and feels shouty, even rather hammy, deflating the tension and drama.
The Japanese-inspired set design reflects the minimalism of the menu to great effect, and looks great and is functional, moving easily between acts during which the audience is treated to hilarious music and dance by Christina, though this does reduce the unsettling tension of her character somewhat. The final dramatic scenes fall flat, not really hitting their target of withering disdain of class social norms.
Runs until 25 May 2026
