REVIEW: A Good Time Was Had by All by Sam Smithson at The Hope Theatre April 5 - 23, 2022

‘delightfully macabre’ ★★★★

Dinner. Four people await the arrival of a fifth.

The title of this play confounds me in some ways. Is it referring to the audience? Or to the four people at the dinner? Surely not the guest who never arrives.

This is an unusual dinner party. There are snide remarks, humour, even some dancing. A chance to catch up on recent history. Immediately the tensions are palpable. As these people get to know each other, it becomes obvious you can never really know what people are capable of doing under pressure.

Each of this quartet (HATTIE KEMISH, HOLLY MCCOMISH, BETHANY MONK LANE, CAMERON WILSON) played their parts truly and the differences between the characters held to the end.

At times chilling, this is not for the faint-hearted or squeamish. This is a delightfully macabre piece that stimulates all of the senses, evoking the style of Edgar Allen Poe or Franz Kafka. The music and sound match the changing moods so well (beautifully accomplished by composer WIL PRITCHARD), and direction is clear and strategic (directed by the writer himself, with support from intimacy director CHRISTINA FULCHER).

The content warnings (about scenes with sexual content; references to sexual assault and drug use) are accurate, and somehow are not rigorous enough to cover what is most surprising about this show. The ending is memorable, if not unpredictably climactic.

I know at least one person who had a good time: this reviewer.

Still, the central question remains: Who would you want for dinner?

A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL

At The Hope Theatre until 23 April 2022

Box Office https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/thehopetheatre/e-pyejba

Written by Sam Smithson

Performed by Hattie Kemish, Holly McComish, Bethany Monk Lane, Cameron Wilson

Directed by Sam Smithson

Stage Manager/Costume Design: Meghan Bartual-Smyth

Composer: Wil Pritchard

Intimacy Director: Christina Fulcher

Press and Communications: Matthew Parker

Reviewer

Mariam Mathew is an alumna of Guardian critic Mark Fisher’s theatre criticism course and an aspiring playwright.