Alan Ayckbourn’s Confusions is a quintet of short linked plays, dating from the mid-Seventies. Nine actors play 20 different parts; one character from each play reappears in the next.

The situations are familiar but enlivened, in customary Ayckbourn style, by the tremors of domestic catastrophe. A pair of celebratory dinners turn sour, a village fête disintegrates embarrassingly and a man on a business trip gives a toe-curling exhibition of what he thinks is suavity but feels like murderous chauvinism. The characters’ lives are full of empty rituals and non‑communication. Ayckbourn is adept at skewering middle-class ennui and the ornaments of suburban sang-froid.

That’s not to say that these short plays are gems. The first two seem overlong, the last too stylised. A number of the jokes prove limp.

However, Ben De Wynter’s thoughtful direction introduces some nicely peppery touches and the performances are sharp, with Andrew Piper floridly expressive, Gillian McCafferty poised and Howard Teale enjoyably versatile. It’s a production that reminds us that there are few better analysts of everyday unhappiness than Alan Ayckbourn.

Until 29 August, Confusions (020 7261 9787)