I have seen two previous plays by Moira Buffini, writer of this dark comedy, they being Dying for It and Welcome to Thebes, and both were superbly entertaining plays with the former the closest to Dinner in its darkness of strorytelling. However for me, Dinner is much more style over substance and portraying quite a lot of what I often hate from many wannabe highbrow plays, pretentiousness. It's failure for me though comes from the story it attempts to tell rather that the brilliant characters it creates (and brought to life seriously well by this very strong cast). A dinner party from hell is how it describes itself and as it weaves its way to a showy (and yes, unpredictable conclusion) it goes to great pains in showing how clever it is by talking all big existential stuff as death, truth and suicide. I don't think the hell at this dinner party would be dealing with the crazy courses or the dramatic climax, it would be getting through the cleverer than its thinks it is dial...