“I suppose on a clear day you can see the class war from here,” says one of the characters in Mike Leigh’s 1997 film Career Girls, peering uncertainly from the window of a smart London penthouse. A prescient line, given the proliferation since then of preposterous glass ziggurats — and it’s an image that haunts April De Angelis’s new play, which is set in a gated community that affords all too obvious a view of society’s divisions.

The flat where all the action takes place is home to Helen Baxendale’s Lara, a bitchy tabloid journalist, who claims a “right to feel safe” and diagnoses anyone who disagrees as suffering from “envy, the Brits’ disease”. Meanwhile, her husband Richard, a smug ex-MP, argues with guest Joe (an enjoyably sour James Dreyfus) about the correct term for their swish stronghold. They settle on “complex”.

The Freudian resonance of this word is played for all it’s worth as the brittle self-satisfaction of their world is shattered by the unsolicited arrival of working-class Shelley — one of the ants visible from the balcony — who poisons the mood with lurid stories of her dead son. And, as Shelley’s tale unravels, we spin into a demented reworking of An Inspector Calls, in which each character is implicated in the death of this very possibly non‑existent youth.

De Angelis’s play is intermittently funny, but strives too hard for topicality — with the now familiar dig at MPs’ expenses presumably a late insertion. From the opening moments it seems to be sliding uncomfortably towards farce, and the attempted pathos of the second half is inauthentic.

Aden Gillett convinces as blithe politico Richard, and Emma Cunniffe is appealing as Caitlin, the nurse who offers a nurturing alternative to his wife. But Helen Baxendale is shrill, the role of Shelley (Vicki Pepperdine) reeks of cliché, and overall the production feels flat, lacking either emotional muscle or satirical bite.

Until 13 June (020 7722 9301).