The creators of The Summer House boldly declare it a “comedy thriller,” a statement I thought it might struggle to justify. Happily, though, I was proven wrong; it is a riotous hour and a half that manages to combine comic brilliance, bizarre fantasy and heated debates about Bob Dylan to great effect.

The Summer House opens midway through Will’s stag do in Iceland. The three friends have ditched best man Matt’s laminated activity cards and are driving to what they think is Neil’s holiday house in the Icelandic wilderness, where they will spend most of the time in a hot tub fighting over leg room.

The relationships between the men are wonderfully displayed. The conversations are so true to life that you could be watching three of your own male friends drinking beer, talking about manliness (apparently you’re only a real man if you’ve been on your own roof) and pretending to be WWF fighters.

This naturalness is probably due to the fact that The Summer House was devised by the director John Wright and the three actors, who tellingly had so much input into the production that they used their own names. There was no script at the start of the process, so the actors would sit in a circle to discuss and improvise particular scenarios. From this flowed the dialogue, which was then hurriedly written down.

The fantasy aspect of the play consists of three Viking warriors passing time while queuing patiently for their execution, Norse Gods arguing over who wears their plastic cape better and an Icelandic giant struggling to write his wedding vows. Although this sub plot is mostly well executed, I felt it was not entirely necessary. The script was less funny in these scenes and the characters less nuanced and I found myself wanting to be back in the hot tub with Neil, Will and Matt.

John Wright has included some very clever devising techniques, like the sliding door, which creates a distinct separation between the action inside the house and what is happening on the patio outside; even what we can hear is limited to either location at one time.

Will, Neil and Matt are just three regular men whose lives seem to unfold before them in random and sometimes disastrous ways. This is a brilliant production that feels less like a play and more like an evening with friends. That’s if your friends like to dress up as Viking warriors and Nordic Gods, of course.

Continues until 24 March, book here.

Written by a Thoroughly Modern Miss, Jenny Greenwood.