Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds

Written and directed by John Godber this comical play is an upstairs-downstairs tale in the aftermath of a black-tie bash.

The four cast members from the Hull Truck Theatre take on various roles, both as servers and the served.

Gordon Kane's key role is the rather droll Ronnie, a hotel waiter whose dry humour is wasted on his colleague Keith (Rob Angell). Their respective attempts at philosophy rather than cleaning up the party mess is great to watch, although they are on different planets.

Backing up is Amy Thompson as Maria and Fiona Wass as Joy (who is far from cheerful). They also take on other roles including a gin-soaked wife and a Barbie-doll “yes” girl.

The boys meanwhile are chairman and director at a charity event where, with the other halves, they engage in pointless talk and social niceties.

There was plenty of plain speaking downstairs, including a simplistic yet effective view of the Iraqi war by Ronnie and Keith.

Moving back to upstairs the drink flowed, the band played and the embarrassing dancing we've all seen (and perhaps done) took over.

A great play with snobbery and resentment but with quite a twist for the guests at the murder mystery weekend.

t Black Tie and Tales runs until Saturday, June 12.