But the production is alternately gauche and garish. And as with My Master Builder, Grandage’s recent, misfiring Ibsen update starring Ewan McGregor, it’s undercut by some oddly uneven performances.
At least the ever-reliable Charles Edwards glides through the role of Gerald Fedden, the smug, Identikit Tory MP whose home becomes a finishing school for lodger Nick Guest, the gay young aesthete who is looking for love while embarking on postgrad literature studies.
Jasper Talbot captures Nick’s combination of vulnerability and truculence. The sex scenes, though, are less than subtle; so too are the party interludes, although they do feature authentically naff dancing and provide a rear-view glimpse of a bouffant Mrs Thatcher as she pays a visit to one of Gerald’s soirées.
The rest of the characters, including Alistair Nwachukwu as Nick’s lover Leo, flit in and out of focus. Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, who played Juliet opposite Tom Holland’s Romeo at the Duke of York’s last year, makes a fleeting appearance as Leo’s sister Rosemary.
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Meanwhile, the narrative plunges through the years. Gerald takes the household to France, which gives everyone a chance to work even harder on their bons mots. Later, as Nick embarks on an affair with the preening, super-wealthy Wani (Arty Froushan), the Aids epidemic starts to cast its shadow.
Donna Summer’s I Feel Love provides part of the soundtrack as the bright young things cavort on Christopher Oram’s uncluttered set, framed by stucco columns evoking the grand houses of Kensington Park Gardens. The dialogue, on the other hand, is closer to the drawing room clichés of a rainy Sunday afternoon at Downton Abbey.
★★☆☆☆
150min
Almeida Theatre, London, to Nov 29, almeida.co.uk
