Must See: Duke of York's Theatre, London WC2

A pitch-perfect portrait of parenthood's pains and gains

Paul Taylor
Thursday 06 September 2012 16:57 EDT
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A West End transfer was widely predicted for April De Angelis's wincingly witty play when it opened at the Royal Court last year. And now here it duly is, acclimatising effortlessly to its new home.

All but two of the original cast reappear, with Tamsin Greig again deeply funny and affecting as Hilary, a menopausal mother in a stale marriage who finds herself at loggerheads with her alarmingly hyper-sexualised and dismissive 15-year-old-daughter, Tilly (Bel Powley).

The material could have been grim, but there's a generous comic resilience to its treatment. One of the pleasures of the piece is the way it is semi-disguised as an upbeat middle-class sitcom so that it can steer you into the elusive and painful parts that the genre does not normally reach.

Nina Raine's pitch-perfect production – snappy, ebullient, yet subtly shaded and ending on an unforced, heart-snagging note of elegiac wistfulness – beautifully communicates this.

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