Most people have been to an awkward dinner party or two, but the titular meal of Moira Buffini’s 2002 black comedy Dinner takes the cake. From the opening lines between our host Paige (Caroline Brazier) and the waiter she found on the Internet (Bruce Spence), the audience knows there is a twist coming – a surprise in store for both them and the dinner guests. But this doesn’t quite prepare anyone for the snowballing uncomfortableness that begins with the uneasily sarcastic relationship between Paige and husband Lars (Sean O’Shea) – whose new philosophy/self-help book, Beyond Belief, is the premise for the party – and builds to excruciating comic peaks.

^{Bruce Spence and Caroline Brazier in Sydney Theatre Company’s Production of Dinner © Brett Boardman}

Buffini plays on the strict social codes and hypocrisy of an upper-class English dinner party, regularly wrong-footing the audience with a biting, darkly hilarious script. But within this, Paige is crafting her own performance, having assembled a carefully curated cast of guests: Hal (Brandon Burke), a scientist sporting a Ramones T-shirt; his glamorous newsreader wife Siân (played with light disdain by Claire Lovering); and Wynne...