A very dark comedy

Right: Caroline Brazier

Sydney Theatre Company presents British playwright Moira Buffini’s Dinner for the first time this September at the Sydney Opera House. This award-winning play has won critical acclaim around the globe and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy following its premiere in London.

Dinner is a black satire on middle-class assumptions. Paige is a socialite extraordinaire with a nasty streak. Tonight, she is reluctantly celebrating her husband’s best-selling book. The usual suspects have been invited for dinner – an artist, a scientist and a newsreader amongst them.

The evening quickly turns into the dinner party from hell. The vengeful host sets the tone with courses such as apocalypse of lobster and primordial soup. In a night of sinister intentions and poisonous undercurrents, secrets will be spilled. As the entrées quiver on their plates, a stranger knocks on the door and the evening takes an unexpected turn.

“I see Dinner as a kind of tragedy,” says Director Imara Savage. “At its heart, it’s about successful people with a serious spiritual and moral vacuum. There's not a lot that’s funny about that, except that, there is something about other people's suffering that is perversely funny. This is the blackest kind of comedy, one with a dangerously sharp knife's edge to it.”

Leading the fine-dining fireworks is Caroline Brazier (ABC’s Rake), joined by Brandon Burke (Arms and the Man) and Bruce Spence (The Secret River). Completing the cast are Claire Lovering, Rebecca Massey, Aleks Mikic, and Sean O’Shea.

11 Sep-28 October. Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House. Bookings: 02 9250 1777 or www.sydneytheatre.com.au

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