Guesthouse, Witham Public Hall, May 11.

Playwright Nicola Werenowska’s father was brought up in Clacton and she makes good use of her local knowledge in this arresting tale of a family running a guesthouse in the town.

In a touring production by the prestigious Eastern Angles company Val (Amanda Bellamy) reminisces about the Blue Lagoon ballroom and the faded glamour of the pier – ‘but it’s on the way up now,’ says daughter Lisa (Clare Humphrey) accurately.

There is also mention, of Cordy’s restaurant, ‘where the holiday folk mostly go,’ of the Venetian bridge, and perhaps inevitably, a disparaging remark about Jaywick as well as a reference to Thorpe. – ‘it’s posh there, though not so posh as Frinton.’

The local colour frames a story of three generations, whose back story gradually evolves over the evening.

The tensions between mother and daughter are vividly brought to life by Bellamy and Humphrey.

Then in steps Chloe (Eleanor Jackson), the third generation, whose latent teenage angst and anger belatedly explodes some years after her teenage years are over.

Werenowska cleverly seeds clues in the early dialogue as to the family history.

Chloe’s mysterious reference to her grandmother as MV, it emerges, is her abbreviation for Mummy Val, as it was her grandmother who brought her up after she was abandoned by her mother.

Thus are the tensions brought to the fore. While the local references recede, resolution appears as distant as the end of the pier.

Ron Fosker