Life takes many twists. The roof falls in, or good fortune smiles on us and we avoid disaster by a whisker, often going blithely on our way, unaware that we've escaped catastrophe. Life and death, happiness and despair, and lots of old-fashioned plays can turn on something as trifling as whether a radio works at a crucial moment. If it fails to work, the conversation will veer into dangerous territory. But if it bursts into life, disaster will be averted, the conversation forgotten as we dance our way unruffled through life.
The radio proves crucial in JB Priestley's pot-boiler, stylishly updated from the 1930s to the present day - although not so updated that a group of bright young things can't raise a CD of dance music between them. In a smart country retreat a tightknit gang, all involved in a successful family publishing firm, are having a cosy dinner party. But their ease and intimacy with each other is swiftly shown to be illusionary, as talk turns to Martin, a former member of the coterie who apparently committed suicide a year before, after stealing a large sum of money from the firm. Soon truths are being told that will shatter the group for ever.
For far too long, Priestley's play lumbers along like a slightly superior Agatha Christie thriller, piling on the revelations and confessions in so preposterous a manner that a Jerry Springer-style punch-up seems inevitable. The point is quickly reached when the audience ceases to gasp at the revelations and starts to giggle. It is only in the final half-hour, which incorporates one of Priestley's famous shifts of time, that the drama has any real sense of purpose, and begins to offer philosophy - we cannot live without our illusions - rather than just narrative.
The production is cast to the hilt, with Dervla Murphy and Rupert Penry Jones in the main roles. Jessica Curtis's design lends it all the trappings of modernity, but the evening only proves that taking the period costumes out of a play doesn't make it any less of a period piece.
Until October 13. Box office: 0113-213 7700.
