Table Manners – Drayton Arms Theatre, London

Writer: Sebastian Kainth

Director: Rhys Ashcroft

The dinner party has been a popular trope in culture across the years. The combination of convivial setting, closed space, and expected etiquette make it a ripe environment for all sorts of interpersonal dissections. With Table Manners, the dinner party is back in Freeky Geese’s specially commissioned comedy from Sebastian Kainth, however, conviviality is far from the menu.

Overbearing and dominating Lisa (Iona Crampton) and her put-upon husband, Kevin (Sebastian Kainth), are hosting a dinner party for Kevin’s best friend Rich (Dan Le Friec) and his new girlfriend Fran (Molly Barton). Lisa is the sort of character that makes Hyacinth Bucket seem relaxed – she is a domineering, bullying snob and everyone seems to cower in her presence. Her husband’s ‘Happy Wife, Happy Life’ mantra has made him a passive lapdog at her beck and call.

Conversely, Rich and Laura are newly in love and have a relaxed and fun-loving relationship that starts to cause friction as soon as they arrive. Initial pleasantries done with, the process of getting to know Laura, the newcomer to the group, turns darkly accusatorial; questions aren’t merely asked, they’re delivered as if in an interrogation and they’re awkwardly prying too.

Something is amiss. And as conversation and the evening’s events bring in new-to-the-neighbourhood John (Rhys Ashcroft), things take a decidedly darker turn. But, despite all the cloak and dagger mysteriousness, Table Manners is a comedy.

At its heart, it’s a classic comedy on manners but taken to an extreme. The overbearing Laura is beyond a caricature and whilst the heart of most of the comedy, is deeply unlikeable. So unlikeable that you question how anyone would want to associate with her in any part of their lives.

The meekness of the other characters around her is funny but deeply frustrating. Why are they putting up with such rudeness and arrogance? Why are the two guests no more supportive of each other in the wake of the inappropriate engagement of their hosts?

Table Manners is like watching strangers having a full-blown argument in public; you are appalled by what you see but you can’t take your eyes off them. The comedy is funny, in the main, but feels very affected: the extremes of the characters seem to be there for purely comic purposes without enough justification to suggest why their traits are as they are. It is simultaneously funny and frustrating to watch.

Iona Crampton shines as the insufferable Lisa, so much so that the other characters feel two dimensional next to her. Kainth’s script ticks all the right boxes but never in a way that completely engages the audience. And Rhys Ashcroft’s direction is perfectly functional but rarely helps the cast lift out of caricature mode.

All this said, when you leave Table Manners, you can’t help but think about it more than you’d ever thought while watching it. The denouement offers up a few surprising twists that, when you revisit the story with the new context, a number of quizzical elements start to make sense. In doing this, somehow, there’s this niggling feeling that the whole play is a lot smarter than it seems.

Runs until 23 October 2023