Not every play could get away with a two-hour first half without its audience starting to get restless, writes Madeleine Pennell.

But my mind never wandered once from the compelling acting, despite the long wait for the interval.

It is a very demanding play. A real test of memory for any actor. But these four pulled it off.

This production is set around the time the play was written 1960-62. The action all takes place in the trendy living room of a cottage on the campus of a small New England college.

George (Peter Harness) and Martha (Katy Brand) have just come in from her father's drinks party. Loud, brash, they have a no-holds-barred exchange of insults that sets the tone of the rest of the play. It is 2am and Martha has invited a couple who are new to the college Nick (Alex Humes and his wife Honey (Emma Campbell Webster), a much quieter couple who ride the storm they have walked into with remarkable tolerance.

Katy Brand and Peter Harness are brilliant as the fiery couple. They weave a bewitching spell. Their relationship is incredibly intense in the play and these actors deliver that, from the tender embraces to the bottle-smashing rages.

Polite and naive, Alex Humes and Emma Campbell Webster are a superb foil to their hosts' fireworks.

While George and Martha play an alcohol-fuelled game of trying to bruise each other by revealing each others' innermost secrets, their guests smooth things over and weather the storms with remarkable resilience, while still showing the cracks in their own marriage.

Continues until Saturday.