IN the summer of 1974, a well-intentioned tea party descends into chaos.

Cue Alan Ayckbourn’s unerring knack for dialogue and mordant observations and there you have it – Absent Friends.

Wealthy, unfulfilled housewife Diana arranges a gathering of old friends to cheer up bereaved Colin, whose fiancée drowned two months earlier. Paul, her bullying, self-absorbed husband, has recently had a dalliance with Evelyn, the glamorous wife of his friend and incompetent business associate John. The party is completed by long-suffering Marge, who has left Gordon, her hypochondriac spouse, ailing at home.

Preparations for the get-together spark tensions and open old wounds. As lingering resentments and deep-rooted jealousies surface, an unexpectedly cheerful Colin strolls into the mayhem.

Brought back to the stage by London Classic Theatre, the deliciously dark production is a ruthless vivisection of friendship, marriage and what it ultimately means to be happy.

“The play starts at a crisis point,” says Catherine Harvey, who plays the well-intentioned yet defeated Diana.

“I suppose that’s why it’s so funny. Essentially Diana has a breakdown during the course of the play. It may not sound funny but it really is.”

Magnifying the characters’ flaws and foibles certainly makes for biting comedy.

“Ayckbourn turns up the volume on these quirks and obsession and the ways they are irritating. He magnifies these characteristics. We recognise them and laugh about them and it’s quite cathartic. In places it can very dark but it’s never too heavy, everything zips along.”

Catherine is no stranger to Absent Friends’ cataclysmic world or the Olivier and Tony Award-winning playwright’s work. After lending herself to the role Evelyn in a previous revival in the 1990s, she was delighted to hop over enemy lines to play the downtrodden Diana.

“I always wanted to play Diana. I loved her journey. I saw the play from Evelyn’s perspective but as you get older, you understand relationships better and the issues in the play; what it’s like to be in your 40s and wondering whether you’ve achieved what you wanted to achieve. Diana is trapped in this situation.

“She wants to create the perfect home, the perfect world for everyone around her. She wants to help nurture everyone but she can’t. Things keep thwarting her. She is lonely within her marriage and her expectations have been disappointed. "She knows from the start of the play that her husband is having an affair. It’s a pressure cooker moment.”

Absent Friends will run at the Wyvern Theatre from Monday, May 11 to Wednesday 13 at 7.30pm. Tickets are £18.50. To book call 01793 524481 or visit swindontheatres.co.uk.