The Safari Party by Tim Firth

Three households in rural Cheshire decide for different reasons to take part in a ‘safari party’ where diners move to a different house for each course of a meal. The starter, main course and dessert.

The first act (starters) is in Dan and brother Adam’s farm kitchen, which has been stripped of anything saleable because they are struggling financially.

The second act (mains) is set in the posh barn conversion belonging to the Voyseys, Lol, and his wife Esther. They are successful retailers trying to adopt a genteel country lifestyle, totally at odds with the real countryside all around them, and the gaps are beginning to show. Their daughter Bridget comes with them, basically to see what happens.

The third act (afters) is set in the outhouse (formerly a pigsty) where Inga keeps her stock of old furniture. Inga appears to be a refined English antiques dealer, but is she?

…and there’s that table, which has changed hands (and price, and ‘provenance’) twice recently…

'The Safari Party' is a cracking comedy from the pen of the man who bought us 'Calendar Girls'.