The Royal & Derngate continues its festival celebrating the 70th birthday of Sir Alan Ayckbourn with a welcome revival of his touching – and a tad depressing – Private Fears in Public Places, written in 2004.

This is only the third production of a work its creator has called his most ‘film-like’ play, a reference to the fact that it consists of short scenes (54 of them) played without interruption over 90 minutes or so.

The theatre’s artistic director Laurine Sansom has chosen to seat his audience on the stage (a much larger space than it appears from the auditorium), with the action taking place at various locations amid and around them. Whatever the sacrifice in comfort for some theatregoers, this is more than compensated for in the added involvement one experiences from watching this powerful piece close-up.

It focuses on the lives of a group of lonely 30-somethings who connect with each other in various ways. It starts with upper-class gel Nicola (Ruth Gibson) being shown over a flat by a nervous and nerdish estate agent Stewart (Matthew Cottle). Later we meet Nicola’s waster of a fiancé, Dan (Christopher Harper, pictured with her above), a disgraced army officer, who spends his day drinking (in a hotel bar run by Ambrose – Kim Wall) when he should be looking for work. Stewart, meanwhile, is followed back to his office and his born-again-Christian colleague Charlotte (Lucy Briers), and to his home where we meet his spinster sister Imogen (Laura Doddington).

Eventually, and most entertainingly, Imogen comes to know the now-dumped Dan through a dating agency – their boozy night out is the comic highlight of the play – and Charlotte goes as a carer to the home of Ambrose’s bed-ridden (and foul-mouthed) old dad, where a very surprising aspect to her character is revealed.

  • Until July 11. For tickets call 01604 624811 (www.royal&derngate.co.uk).