Tamzin Outhwaite, Robert Webb and Sarah Hadland from the BBC’s Miranda lead a strong cast in Simon Paisley Day’s rather sitcommy play, which pokes fun at middle-class anxieties and especially the stresses of pushy parenting.
It is set in a holiday cottage in a remote part of Wales. Three dislikeable couples have headed there in the hope of getting some rest. They’re happy to be away from their children.
But nothing goes to plan and a catalyst for genuine chaos arrives in the shape of rogue teenager Tabby, who introduces herself by tripping across the living room and collapsing violently on the sofa.
Domestic disaster looms, its ingredients ranging from a shotgun to a breast pump. Throw in lots of alcohol plus a rave in a neighbouring field and the result is an energetic farce flecked with notes of satire.
Edward Hall’s production is efficient, and there are a few moments when the cast coalesces riotously. As Outhwaite’s fretful Briony jousts pathetically with her partner Keith (Barnaby Kay), Webb and Hadland are on canny form as control freaks Ross and Rosy.
Bel Powley delivers a broad, bolshy turn as Tabby, while Issy van Randwyck and Nicholas Rowe combine well as a ghastly couple consumed with lust. The jokes are abundant yet of variable quality — the physical and visual ones generally stronger than the verbal.
Also the plot is flimsy and the characterisation two-dimensional. It’s all too easy to predict how the relationships will develop. With its gags about gentrification and the deliciousness of breast milk, Raving wants to feel sharply contemporary but it lacks real bite.
Until November 23 (020 7722 9301, hampsteadtheatre.com)
