Review: SWING BY AROUND 8, Theatre N16, 21 November 2016

Swing by around 8. D'yer geddit? Swing by around 8. Swing!

The problem for Kat and her boyfriend Matt is that they don't know if their dinner party guests, another couple in relationship trouble, Elliot and Amelia, understood that the invitation was to swing - really swing. Kat's all for a bit of hanky-panky with the chocolate mousse and so is Elliot, but Matt is getting a bit jealous and Amelia is more interested in a policeman who may, or may not, be in on the whole thing. Like serving Jamie's savoury tarts to a woman sworn off beige food, mis-steps lead to unexpected (and amusing) consequences.

Even if the set-up has its roots in Ayckbourn farce, it's splendid to see a new contemporary comedy set in 2016 with characters drawn from life as it is lived today. The product of N16's First Credit - a scheme to give young actors and directors an opportunity in professional theatre - Jess Bray's script shows plenty of promise, most of all a keen ear for dialogue, the characters speaking lines people would actually speak in the situations they find themselves in. That rare skill is about 50% of the work of a successful playwright and one wonders sometimes if it's given that level of priority.

The actors (inevitably a little too young for their roles) work with an approach rooted in the naturalism tradition. Okay it's not Strindberg (and not Ayckbourn either), but there are plenty of laughs, with nods towards Ricky Gervais's comedy of embarrassment as well as more traditional farce. In an intimate space, I found myself wanting to intervene to reassure the characters that it would be okay - a sure sign that they are credible and that we are invested in their fates.

As Kat, Maisie Black is a little too precociously coquettish (though castigated by Matt for behaving like an 18 year-old to be fair) but she gets the flirting right and pushes enough forward of what's in her push-up bra to show that she's keen for what comes after pudding. Paul Boichat rather enjoys what he's seeing and gets the sleazy, if henpecked, Elliot's lascivious look and slightly wandering hands just the right side of actionable in law.

Rebecca Drake isn't given quite enough to do as the bitchy lush Amelia, but her on-off flirting with Maanuv Thiara, uptight and nervous as Kat's boyfriend Matt, is a good counterpoint to their other halves' more obvious foreplay.

All through in an hour or so, with a slightly unnecessary reveal at the end (we'd pretty much worked out who knew what about whom by then), the play is amusing as it stands, but, with a bit more jeopardy and a more developed and dangerous relationship between Matt and Amelia, it could be re-worked into something with the hard edge that is a feature of Ayckbourn's best work. And, rarely for a reviewer seeing over 100 shows a year, I wanted to know what happened next - perhaps a sequel beckons?

Swing By Around 8 continues at Theatre N16 until 1 December.

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