IS it always a tricky moment when in-laws meet each other for the first time? Probably. The moment when an established family needs to expand seamlessly to absorb someone unknown into their fold is anticipated with both excitement and fear. Into this heightened experience the audience of Ilkley Playhouse is invited. Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘Role Play’, directed by Steve Mason, is set beautifully in a smart Dockland’s flat in London, designed by Jacquie Howard. Bright and expansive it provides an entirely authentic backdrop for the action of the play. A ‘yuppie’ couple awaits the arrival of their parents for dinner in order to announce their engagement. From early on something is awry – he’s just not as keen as she is…uh oh.

When an unexpected guest literally drops in and decides to stay for dinner - along with her minder - an already delicate situation is made much worse. Total strangers with a very different agenda to the one planned are determined to have things their way – nightmare.

Some of the characters in this play are very familiar: the daughter who wants everything to be just perfect, the son who isn’t bothered – except about his mother. Played with enormous sensitivity by Becky Hill and Eoin Howe, we watch newly engaged Justin and Julie-Ann, go through a huge range of emotions and it rapidly becomes clear that they’re not quite on the same page…

There is fantastic interplay between the two sets of in-laws who are polar opposites – one mum prim and prissy and the other, something of a lush, channelling her inner, Abfab inspired, ‘Patsy’. Denise MacGregor as Arabella, wearing a tight-fitting scarlet dress and knocking back brandy is clearly not what holier-than-thou Dee (Miranda Armitage) had in mind as a co-grandparent of the future. Dee’s husband, Derek however, seems every inch the convivial Yorkshire man, much loved by his daughter and wife alike and entirely charming until he reveals a catastrophic flaw which leaves his prospective son-in-law reeling. Chris Cundell plays this part so comically it’s hard suddenly to dislike him – but dislike him we do.

The strangers at the table, Paige and Mickey, (Anna Riley and Andrew Walton), provide great comic relief as well as an additional dramatic dimension. Paige is a character of many layers, each one skilfully revealed by Riley, whilst Mickey too has unexpected hidden depths.

Knowing the characters of this play, it would be an entertaining game to try to guess the final outcome – bravo if you get it right! Better still, go and see it. It plays until Saturday, January 27.

by Becky Carter