ALAN Ayckbourn's comedy brings to the Devonshire Park a particularly festive blend of high spirits and low moods.
The play is set in three different kitchens (and three impressive sets) over three successive Christmas Eves, as six friends gather to celebrate, commiserate, bicker and bond.
The evening kicks off at the Hopcrofts (Sara Crowe as Jane and Matthew Cottle as Sidney), who are desperate to impress their new friends and scale the social ladder.
While the party unfolds offstage, most of the protagonists gravitate towards the kitchen to let down their guard.
Jane, almost paralysed with nerves and scrubbing the pristine kitchen with a vengeance, is so desperate to impress she ends up locked out of her own party, while shopkeeper Sidney's nerves manifest themselves in ridiculing his wife while trying to charm his architect and banker friends.
However, as the years roll by we see that the social structure of the group has been radically shaken up.
The second Christmas Eve sees the architect, Geoffrey (Marc Bannerman), trying to placate his suicidal wife Eva (Honeysuckle Weeks) while the other guests are cheerfully oblivious to her distress, believing her preoccupation with open windows, live wires and gas ovens is more to do with sprucing up the flat than ending her life.
The third act reveals that the patronising Marion and Ronald (Deborah Grant and David Griffin) have fallen the furthest, while Sidney and Jane quite literally have the group dancing to their tune.
Despite the blend of personal and political, light and shade, there are still plenty of straightforward laughs to be had – especially from Sara Crowe as the ditzy Jane and Deborah Grant, who is particularly good as the dipsomaniac Marion.
Absurd Person Singular is at the Devonshire Park Theatre until Saturday night, with evening performances at 7.45pm and a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm.
Call 412000 for tickets.