You’re in a lift. It stops between floors. The lights go out. What do you do?

You press all the buttons. Then you press them again, and again. Once of them is bound to connect, right?

That’s pretty much the feeling I get from actor-now-playwright Eloise Snape’s comedy-drama The Elevator, which traps three women, each representing a different generation and set of world views, in the lift of a troubled AI tech company.

Di Adams, Shirong Wu and Leeanna Walsman in The Elevator. Photo © Prudence Upton

Stuck somewhere on the way to a meeting on the 48th floor – are company CEO Margot (Leeanna Walsman), her crisis comms expert, Alison (Shirong Wu), and a janitor Ollie (Di Adams).

The timing of the breakdown is exquisite: Margot and Alison are embroiled in an incident that could bring down the company; one of its self-driving cars has gone rogue, leaving a pedestrian fighting for his life. The media has gathered, waiting for a statement that Margot and Alison are finessing minute by minute.

And were that not enough, mobile reception is out, Margot is just 24 hours postpartum and leaking breast milk all over her...