In 1980, the most requested Christmas present was the Rubik's Cube. The most watched programme was The Paul Daniels Magic Show, and St Winifred's School Choir was number one - which raises the question, why would anyone want to revisit it? Yet the enduring popularity of Alan Ayckbourn's seasonal classic ensures that there will always be cause to ask what it was that drove us to decorate our houses with colour schemes derived from a box of tissues? Perhaps it's because, like most Ayckbourn plays of this vintage, it all ends in tears.
Season's Greetings follows the misadventures of Clive, a novelist, invited to spend Christmas with his girlfriend's family; a situation that Ayckbourn invests with a piercing ring of truth. One particularly excruciating episode, in which Clive is collared by a rapaciously drunk woman demanding to know where he gets his ideas from, can only be the work of a writer who has endured many similar assaults himself.
Yet if there's a weakness to Nikolai Foster's diligent revival, it's that Stuart Laing's docile Clive never really persuades you that he is a successful writer. The more extreme comic personalities around him, however, are consistently well observed. Ian Bartholomew is wonderfully poignant as a would-be puppeteer with his strings in a twist, and Angela Clerkin is frankly disturbing as an intemperate woman who regards tinsel as a fashion statement.
In fact, it could be argued that Christmas, with its inevitable disappointments, enforced family reunions and increased potential for conflict, is an Ayckbourn scenario that everyone can join in. Wouldn't it be safer to watch it in June, without the knowledge that you were preparing to undergo the onslaught yourself? Buy all means get a ticket. Just make sure you've got the presents wrapped and the dinner planned well in advance.
· Until January 21. Box office: 0151-708 0338.
