I really enjoyed the play, at first. The dialogue is quick and sharp from the start and the laughs keep coming. In a way, it is refreshing to see some really difficult topics addressed through satire. Exposing the hypocrisy of declared liberals who are in fact paying lip-service to feminist ideals; showing up the contradictions embedded within identity politics; and mocking society’s enthrallment with celebrity and the lengths people are willing to go to achieve it.

The male characters with their pompous conversations are superbly played. Jay, the larger-than-life American star, has clearly been shielded from much of reality and struggles to take in and process the information about the Troubles that he is finding out about. The director is a moral contortionist, willing to do and say anything to appease the actor in order to guarantee positive reviews for his production. He is also the self-perceived male saviour, pulling the female writer out of obscurity.

As the story line unfolds however, its starts to feel that the writer got himself into a bit of a pickle he did not know how to get out of. So, to mask the plot having lost all sense and the characters having become one-dimensional, the play descends into an absurd farce. First there is running around the stage trying to grab a phone – something reminiscent of at best a teenage sitcom; then there is violence and blood spurting all over the place, like some poor rendition of the Saw franchise.

This misdirection does not work. In fact, it provides the breathing space to re-evaluate what came before, when the gags were coming thick and fast and there might not have been time to get under the skin of things. And you realise, the director was so drunk he was stumbling around the stage and then all of a sudden he was more sober than the teetotal Jay. You can blackmail someone by threatening to send a career-cancelling tweet – there is not need for to be sent there and then, therefore there is no need to requisition the phone at all cost. The author on entry is presented as almost callous – completely unphased by the car accident and her mother being in hospital. Next thing, she is the only character with values and the moral courage to stand up to Jay’s entitlement. All the while demonstrating a level of arrogance and snobbishness by not bothering to engage on the topic of her play to try and explain its meaning to someone who clearly lacks the historical background to comprehend it unaided. I think the author wants us to like her character… but I found it impossible.

So overall some great acting, some laughs and whole lot of disappointment.