Ordinary Dreams at Trafalgar Studios

Of course, I’d never have known these were difficult times were it not for the cast of Ordinary Dreams – Or: How to Survive a Meltdown with Flair reminding me. I was braced for a clodding, frozen asset of toxic debt to pin me to my seat in imaginative redundancy. But while the play did overegg the recession theme, happily there was enough comedy and original script to keep it suitably creditworthy.

Penny (Imogen Slaughter), a recovering alcoholic, and her highly-strung husband Miles (James Lance) are new, middle-class, London parents in their early thirties whose anti-social neighbours are straining their relationship’s limits. Their uni friend (and Penny’s ex) is Dan (Adrian Bower) – the most earthy character – who has a kooky, new-age American girlfriend called Layla (Sia Berkeley). The characters either bond or atomise as they explore their relationships with one another while all the time the tiny hammers in the economy sound ever more discordant.

The comedy works through Marcus Markou’s astute and topical script that perfectly details the petty gripes of the frustrated. Miles, a new father whose neuroses gets the better of him, exemplifies the grinding self-absorption that ‘working from home’ can create, as well as the emasculation that a recession-ravaged society can strip bare.

Miles frets that he can’t afford their extortionate mortgage or private hospital care. He angsts over his neighbours’ loud music, berates council tax spongers and dreams of a better world where his skills will be properly appreciated. His is the malaise of the bitter, where ordinary dreams have somewhere malformed, poking all those in his path – Penny, Dan, Layla – into newly-sprouted directions.

As Penny withdraws into prioritising the baby, Miles begins to exhibit delusions of grandeur where he is in control of his crumbling world. And suddenly we are within pumped-up TV chat shows, hotly-contested election campaigns, hotter-still simmering passions.

Despite the sparse set comprising just one sofa, the reach of Miles’ world is expertly conveyed through Adam Barnard’s witty direction as well as Mike Robertson’s vivid lighting effects. All actors show strong, if slight sitcom-style performances, although Slaughter seems better suited to more serious stuff than comedy.

The central premise – where today’s maelstrom of financial fractures reflects a similar dislocation in personal lives – is perhaps unnecessary. Regardless of the slightly overworked reference to recession, the play is a perceptive, light-hearted look at the dynamics within human relationships and how easily they are broken.

Ordinary Dreams – Or: How to Survive a Meltdown with Flair is showing until 6 June at:

Studio 2
Trafalgar Studios
14 Whitehall
SW1A 2DY

Box office: 0870 060 6632