There's a man at the box office in a terrible mood - he wants to be relocated, because he has just discovered that his seat has a restricted view. What he doesn't realise is that this is the Ayckbourn play in which every seat has a restricted view. It's the way he built it.
Things We Do for Love takes place on a three-storey set, though only slivers of the upper and lower floors are visible. The purpose of this oblique experiment in set design is partly architectural - it enables the action to occur simultaneously in three separate flats - but it also has a metaphorical function, hinting that we only partially glimpse the reality of other people's lives.
Hamish and Nikki, on the top floor, seem to be the perfect besotted couple. Gilbert, in the basement, is handy with a bag of tools and useful to have around. And Barbara is, physically and dramatically, very much in the middle - a bossy, single career woman whose personal space seems ripe for invasion.
Director Christopher Luscombe has chosen one of Ayckbourn's most problematic plays: a dark masterpiece from the troubled mid-1990s period in which the anguish outweighs the laughs. But the gamble pays off handsomely, with an excellent quartet of actors who never underplay the more sinister themes of obsession and domestic violence.
Janine Wood and Robin Cameron are particularly impressive as a couple whose initial dislike turns to dangerously physical attachment. Rod Arthur is deeply affecting as a sad man shuffling about in his basement, while Cate Debenham-Taylor cuts through to the dark heart of the play when she announces: "I'm so weak and pathetic, it's no wonder people punch me." As far as punchlines go, it's one of Ayckbourn's bleakest.
· Until April 24. Box office: 01423 502116.
