Written for Time Out
Just as you can have a great night out in a poky dive, The Leisure Society is a feeble, puerile play that nonetheless makes for an enjoyable 90 minutes. Taking aim at yuppie hypocrisy, its cheap shots come with a chaser of shame.
Well-to-do married couple Peter (Ed Stoppard) and Mary (Melanie Gray) invite divorced party-boy Mark (John Schwab) round for dinner, planning to break off their friendship. He turns up with his 21-year-old shag (Agyness Deyn) in tow and, while the hosts' baby bawls upstairs, the group's thoughts turn to sexual adventures.
As the spineless Peter, Stoppard over-pitches his best Woody Allen impression. While he motors for the laughs, former supermodel Deyn handles François Archambault's acerbic comedy with a lighter touch. Sometimes her conviction slips, but she's got great timing and achieves a droll combination of drowsy allure and blunt disdain.
Writer Archambault has a vivid, scathing satiric voice, but his flip-flapping characters haven't a scrap of psychological credibility and, rather than plotting a through-line, he offers a string of chronological snapshots separated by jump-cutting blackouts. (And then. And then. And what?)
Swerves into darker territory - think Saved as a sex farce - clunk into heavy-handed melodrama, and 'The Leisure Society's only depths are the ones it plumbs.
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