This revival of the 1989 comedy by Stephen Jeffery about four flat mates who have shared a basement flat in Earls Court for ten years is set in the context of the London eighties property boom which saw prices begin to rise rapidly and the impact it has on their relationship. It is rooted in its time from June 1984 to May 1987 and while it wallows in nostalgia neither their relationships nor its prediction of collapse rings true in this first revival in UK for 30 years.
The problem is immediately evident in Michael Taylor’s cavernous set with high brick walls surrounding a square revolving dais which contrasts sharply with the images in the programme from Jeffery’s own London flat of the time. This feels a huge space and none of the issues of damp, cramped rooms or poor light in a basement flat are portrayed. Worse still when we are asked to leave the auditoria at the interval so the set that it can be transformed into the beginnings of a bijou London property investment are expectations are raised for something contrasting in Act 2. Instead we get a polished floor covered by a dust sheet. If ever a play cried out for a traditional box set with a sharp decorative transformation this one requires it.
