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 silk shirt and the AI (acronym TAURUS; voiced by Johnny Nassar) that controls the lift – and, rather more worryingly, the self-driving car network – will only respond to commands in Italian.

As the play unfolds, however, we begin to twig that something else is going on. We become witnesses to a trap being sprung.

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

Delivered in a straight-through 90 minutes, The Elevator lifts off very cleanly. Snape’s playfully prickly dialogue between the uncompromising Margot and the flustered Alison (whose default response to high stress is magical laughter) is very funny. Director Anthea Williams keeps the tempo up and the rhythm tight.

Kelsey Lee’s set – which seems primed to make actors materialise, Star Trek-style, at first – is good-looking and serves the play well. Composer and sound designer Daniel Helen sends rumbles of noise down the lift shafts to worrisome effect. The three actors – Wu especially – are right in the pocket.

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

Snape is writing a demanding form – The Elevator is pure ‘situation’ comedy-drama, set in real time, no break-outs, flashbacks or interior monologues. Every moment has to feed the next, and for an hour or so, Snape keeps things moving at an impressive clip.

It’s only when we get into the why and how of it that things become laboured, knotty and implausible. Gender and power, corporate responsibility, the moral, legal and ethical issues surrounding the adoption of AI, motherhood in the workplace, housing affordability, one’s duty to self and to one’s elders, inter-generational conflict, revenge … it’s a lot.

Ultimately, the accumulation of ideas starts to feel cumbersome and The Elevator’s twisty-turny final 30 minutes – despite fine performances – leaves you every bit as keen to walk away from the scenario as its characters.

The Elevator plays at The Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli until 18 October.