Patrick Marber’s Closer follows four people through various dating configurations, affairs and dramatic breakups, conveyed through a series of short scenes several months apart. The star-studded 2004 film adaptation was nominated for two Oscars; now Alumnae Theatre have brought it back to its stage roots.

Alumnae’s production is slick and entertaining, but it suffers slightly from miscasting. Steven Burley as Larry is too physically slight to be as imposing as many of his scenes require, and often when Larry’s true bullying nastiness should be most apparent, we see him only as a victim. His softness of manner and of accent also mask the class tension we are meant to perceive between him and Anna, and oblique references to this are never fully explored.

Where Burley does shine is in his comedy moments. A scene of him talking to a potential fuck buddy in an internet chatroom relies entirely on his and Dave Lapsley’s facial expressions and gestures for entertainment, and Burley in particular ensures that this is one of the play’s funniest scenes.

Lapsey brings just the right amount of sneering arrogance to Dan, and both women are spot-on in their performances. Laura Vincent as Alice conveys a mixture of strength and vulnerability that ensures she is the only really likeable character, and Tabitha Keast’s Anna has the sad bewilderment of somebody who wanders between relationships without much in the way of agency or introspection — the best explanation for her character’s relationship flip-flopping.

There is a palpable stage chemistry between all the actors, which comes across most strongly in the scenes between Dan and Larry, and between Alice and Anna. These contain the play’s most interesting moments, and we get the impression that these scenes, in which they talk about their lovers rather than to them, are the most truthful.