Pine

Been going to the theatre all year, but honestly this little production at the Hampstead Downstairs beat all the others. Just for the sheer joy of it. When one looks back at it this new [play is actually a bit of cliché. Group of people get together, they start out antagonistic but al come to like each other in the end. But that's a popular format because its so likeable.

The play is set in one of those pop-up Christmas tree sale sites. Sami runs the venture - a wide-boy Essex Asian. The four who actually see the threes are one girl who, bitterly, admits this is her fourth but definitely last year, two students, one a slightly autistic cousin of Sami, the other a posh girl, and the quartet is rounded off by an enthusiastic young Welsh rugby player currently (and we learn, permanently) injured.

It works so incredibly well because it is both poignant and very funny. The four young sellers are all having their dreams crushed, all expecting something far better than selling Christmas trees. So its got all the stuff about class and aspiration that you would expect, and that sense of entitlement that many young people have. Of course its the uneducated Sami that has actually made it, by going out and doing something.

I should also say that the young cast are are absolutely terrific. This couldn't have been better cast or performed if one had all the Hollywood A-listers at one's disposal. Just brilliant entertainment. And all for £12. Actually the same price as our interval drinks.