Director Jim Matsinos has assembled a great ensemble for this wicked and funny show that leaves the audience guessing until the last word is spoken. Dinner, by English playwright Moira Buffini, is cutting and calculating as it cleverly shifts the audience's allegiance between the characters.

Lars Janssen (Lance Thompson) has written a pop-philosophy book called Beyond Belief. His wife Paige (Vickii Byram), a socialite extraordinaire with a vengeful bent, is reluctantly celebrating its successful publication by presiding over a dinner party with "a few close friends".

First to arrive is Wynne (Amanda Gordon), a self-described eroticist, artist, and vegetarian. She is in the line of Paige's fire as she manoeuvres towards Lars, who "took her cherry" when they were at university 20 years ago. Wynne is not the smartest knife on the table and her sycophantic enthusiasm for Lars's book is cringe-inducing, as is her participation in the dinner games.  

Newlyweds Sian (Gina Mansfield) and Hal (Cameron Marshall) are next to be carved up at the table. Hal used to be married to Paige's best friend Mags, who is currently in a psychiatric hospital. He recently married trophy wife and “newsbabe” Sian. As the night unfolds, it becomes obvious they are not the picture perfect newlyweds one would imagine.

Sian has her eye on the unexpected guest - van driver Mike (Tristram de Jong), who has crashed his van in the fog. The sexual tension between these two, and her vitriolic put down of her hapless husband who doesn't "measure up", add to the burgeoning chasm of relationships.

On the menu are primordial soup, apocalypse of lobster, and frozen waste - all of which Paige has cleverly created to serve as metaphors for the state of affairs revealed during the evening. 

Add to this melange a silent waiter (Paul Holcroft) who is under threat to adhere to Paige's unspoken instructions and you have a recipe for mayhem. The conversation gets personal and the revelations are startling. The night will not end well as the ironic repartee flies between Paige and Lars. 

Matsinos describes Dinner as a devilishly black satire on upper middle-class assumptions. "The knives are out, but nothing is sharper than the insults," he says. There is some strong language in the play, but it is perfectly relatable in the circumstances. So, if witty conversation, surprises, and unexpected physicality excite your grey matter, rsvp to Dinner.

DINNER - Player's Theatre, March 8-10, 15-17, Fridays and Saturdays 8pm, Sundays 2pm. Tickets $35, from the Glasshouse box office or online at www.playerstheatre.org.au or at Players one hour before the show.