Southwick Players offer black comedy Muswell Hill

Muswell Hill runs from Wednesday, April 10 to Saturday, April 13 (7.30pm performances). Tickets are £12 from southwickplayers.org.uk.

Director Gary Cook said: “I am very excited to return to directing at the Barn with this excellent play by Torben Betts. Muswell Hill examines an evening in the lives of six individuals as they attend a dinner party in the leafy north London suburb of the title. I first picked up the script for this play on a whim some time ago, and though I knew of Torben Betts, I was unfamiliar with his work. On first reading I was captivated. His knack of contrasting deep and troubling global issues with the minutely observed trivia of day-to-day life immediately appealed. Muswell Hill is set on the evening of January 13 2010. News of the devastating earthquake in Haiti is just coming in, and while it doesn’t directly affect events unfolding in the play, the air of disaster and helplessness feeds into the evening’s mood. The action is seen entirely from the kitchen, with gossip, back-biting and revelations galore. As the evening progresses, we see relationships shatter and blossom, major revelations, disappointment and hilarity in equal measure - suffice to say, the evening doesn’t exactly go to plan…

"An obsession with mobile gadgets and uncertainty about careers, love lives, diets, mobile phone tariffs, holiday plans and cooking a lovely dinner resonates through this wonderfully written play.”