Fairview, by Jackie Sibblies Drury

Fairview revolves around the middle class, black American Frasier family who are getting ready to celebrate Grandma's birthday. Beverly needs everything to be perfect but Dayton has brought the wrong silverware, the carrots aren't ready, the radio is playing up and Tyrone might not make it at all. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the headline of the play is a look behind the fourth wall at the workings of an ordinary middle class, black family but Fairview has so much more to offer.

The play is divided into three acts. Act one plays out the naturalistic family drama set in the family's stylish and immaculate dining room. Beverly, the archetypal mother figure, is rushing around trying to make everything perfect, her husband Dayton is ‘helping’, Beverly's sister Jasmine arrives and we feel the tension between them as they try not to parry, Keisha bounces in wanting Jasmine to help her convince her mum that she should take a gap year before college; kitchen sink drama that we can relate to in so many ways.