Like his latest West End import, Woman in Mind, Alan Ayckbourn’s Just Between Ourselves, first produced in 1977 and not revived very often, proves one of his bleakest plays in which the line between laughter and pain is exceedingly thin. Two unhappily married couples and an interfering mother-in-law make up the cast which leaves director Peter Duguid able to encourage everyone to play for real, letting the laughter spring naturally from the characters and situations.

Dennis, played to perfection by Warren Clarke in the production's best performance, retreats to his garage workshop at every possible opportunity although he's one of those men who never quite get around to mending anything. Fretful wife Vera (Susan Hanson, not quite strong enough in a difficult part) finds that his neglect, coupled with the malicious behaviour of his mother (the marvellous Liz Smith) who shares their home, does nothing to improve her mental problems. The other husband on view, the indecisive Neil, retreats into hypochondria to escape the advances of his frustrated (in bed in particular and in life in general) wife.  Susie Blake and Colin Higgins resist the temptation to overplay the pair’s oddities and are all the better for it. All this culminates in several marvellously planned and amusing set pieces, an alfresco tea party that degenerates into chaos and “caught in the act” scene in the garage, although the ending offers little hope for the future.