DANGEROUS Corner opens with a bang - literally.

The audience is thrust straight into a world of secrets, lies and intrigue in the first play to be penned by JB Priestley.

Edmund Kingsley puts in a believably naïve performance as Robert Caplan, a man who simply can’t let well enough alone.

Under his probing, the veneer of civilisation and friendship between the characters on the stage is stripped bare to reveal the truths that each of them are hiding beneath their suave exteriors, each revelation further fraying the threads that bind their close-knit group together.

This is one of Priestley’s least performed works, revived by the Playhouse’s artistic director Gareth Machin, but it is certainly worthy of being aired more often.

With twists and turns and unexpected revelations galore, lightened by sparkling dialogue and witty interjections, the play is clever and captivating.

The only criticism I might venture, and it is a very minor one, is that several of the characters spent rather a long time standing very close to a roaring open fire, which had it been real would likely have been very uncomfortable, and even risky.

It was a little detail that I found momentarily distracting, but took nothing away from this very slick production.

The end of the play is as dramatic as the start and its neatness is eminently satisfying.

You will leave pondering what might lie around the next corner, and what you may have narrowly avoided around those corners never taken.

Morwenna Blake

* Until February 23.