Money and friendship don’t mix, as the old adage goes. They certainly don’t for four old university pals in this satire, which blends fine wines with sexual confessions and angry identity politics.
Adaego (Susan Wokoma) is married to Tobin (Greg Wise), who has invested £125,000 into Kas (Amit Shah) and Jacq’s (Alex Roach) trendy new restaurant. Tonight is the night the latter couple reveal their impending bankruptcy, and Tobin’s lost investment. But the vintage wines they serve up to soften the blow fuel a drinking game that unearths a more contentious buried secret.
Directed by Emma Butler and written by Deborah Frances-White, comedian and creator of the hugely successful podcast, The Guilty Feminist, it is entertaining fare with some zinging lines, and a fine cast who have evident synergy on stage.
But the fun, frothy satire loses its fizz in the course of two and a half hours and the drama groans under the weight of all the issues it takes on.
Jacq is a plain-speaking bisexual woman who grew up in white, working-class poverty. Kas is her wet British Asian boyfriend while Adaego is a sloaney black British journalist, and Tobin a performatively apologetic “straight white male” who brags about giving up a TEDx talk to leave the path open for “women and people of colour”.
Culture wars ensue, and each character embodies an ethical or ideological position, often telling us the position they are taking. Tobin claims to want to listen and learn rather than exercise his privilege but is too predictably hypocritical and even mansplains the etymology of the word “woke” to his wife. She speaks about cultural appropriation but is drowning in class privilege.
There are debates on poverty, race, sexuality, appropriation, the hypocrisies of the liberal elite and Brexit. These are often amusing but lack surprise or bite. Because the characterisation is so two-dimensional, we do not believe in this group, or their anger.
No character is likable – except perhaps for the dithering Kas. Tobin becomes the villain of the piece when the plot takes an improbable turn into territory resembling the 1990s film Indecent Proposal but this does not carry the emotional drama or credibility that it should.
Yet still it is eminently watchable, rather like a TV sitcom in tone. The high-concept restaurant, designed by Frankie Bradshaw, is well put together and there are striking visual effects to Ryan Day’s lighting.
Repeated references to the world of podcasts come through the show and some of its comedy sounds like riffs from Frances-White’s podcast, whose fans will no doubt lap this up.
• Never Have I Ever is at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester until 30 September
