FOUR STARS

 

Viv’s house is a tip, in spite of her strenuous efforts to keep it clean and tidy. “Get up, I want to Hoover,” she snaps at the couple lying on the floor, their naked bodies more or less covered by a duvet. Last night’s washing up is still festering in the sink, and cigarette ends (or maybe spliffs) fill the ashtray - this being the 1980s.

Oxford playwright Doug Lucie’s Hard Feelings certainly brings back memories. First staged at the Oxford Playhouse in 1982, the play is now being revived at the Finborough Theatre, Earls Court, close to the similarly messy flat I once shared. Viv’s house is in Brixton, and the first Brixton Riots are very audibly building up outside – not that any of her housemates inside takes much notice, until there’s a particularly loud explosion: “They ruined my song,” complains Oxford graduate and wannabe pop star Rusty (Jesse Fox) in his consonant-free drawl as he tries to make a recording. Besides Rusty, Lucie has created a satisfyingly disparate array of characters, and he finds several flashes of wry humour as he leads his audience inside their heads. Professional Frisbee team leader Baz (Nick Blakeley) is the only nice person amongst them: “Too nice,” he says mournfully at one point. At the opposite extreme comes poisonous Annie (Margaret Clunie) a leggy part-time model and artist, who sees nothing wrong in putting her picture of Hitler up on the wall, even though housemate Jane (Zora Bishop) is Jewish. House owner Viv (Isabella Laughland) is a mass of prickly contradictions, while aggressive journalist Tone (Callum Turner) is a seriously nasty piece of work.

Hard Feelings paints a still riveting picture of privileged, self-centred youth, cocooned and insulated from the world around it. It may be set in the 1980s, but how much has changed since?

• Until 6 July
• Tickets: /www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk or 0844 847 1652