The chronicler Gerald of Wales related how in the 1170s the monks of Llandovery priory were denounced by their local baron Lord Rhys for their misbehaviour. Things were apparently so bad that locals were thinking of leaving Wales for England to protect the virtue of their wives and daughters. One monk castrated himself as penance. What they would have made of the antics of the characters in the Tower’s production of Michael Wynne’s The Priory is anybody’s guess, but they might well have identified with them quite a bit.

Life is stressful and stress is not a modern invention. You need to loosen up a bit. The group who gather at the titular venue for New Year all have their crosses to bear and their attempts to lighten their loads turn out to be singularly unsuccessful. Kate, fresh from a solitary and joyless Christmas has gathered a bunch of her old university chums together in the middle of nowhere but it turns out that the whole thing was the idea of her ex-partner Matthew, and not learning from the adage of never fishing on a borrowed line she has ploughed on regardless, hoping it will be a relaxing and spiritual occasion for all concerned. It is, in some ways quite a traditional “country house” set up, but with “first world problems”.

Things start to go wrong very quickly. Like the work colleagues in Tim Firth’s Neville’s Island it turns out that far from being friends they are actually a collection of festering grievances and long term grudges, and “marooned” away from civilisation without even a mobile phone signal for comfort things start to unravel faster than a ball of wool down a liftshaft. There are lots of surprises in store for the group, but none of them good.

Joel Dyer’s Daniel is by his own admission someone “who falls in love at the drop of a hat” but doesn’t seem very good at getting anyone to pick up the hat and so has resorted to cybersex while designing the disabled loos of London’s tallest building. He seems likely to be the greatest support to Helen McGill’s Kate but their alliance somewhat falls apart when it turns out they both have secret plans for nookie among the nooks and crannies. All withering looks and sardonic emphasis he didn’t really seem to know what he wanted. His tinderesque squeeze Adam, played by Lawrence Bolton wasn’t given much to play with by either Daniel or the playwright before he exited back into the gathering darkness outside.

I was somewhat perplexed by Adam Forbes’s Ben who seemed a vaguely written and not terribly likable character whose finest hour was his remarkable drag queen re-appearance courtesy of the priory’s dressing up box. He didn’t seem to have much of a connection with the rest of the “friends” and was frankly, a cad, sir in his treatment of Laura who he had picked up 24 hours previously at another party. Angharad Ormond’s Laura was testament to her versatility as an actor, with her previous appearances in Sailor Beware and Little Nell making an impressive trilogy for the year. I honestly didn’t recognize her when she first burst onto the stage, an outsider desperate for acceptance among people she thinks are more exciting than her, but who turn out to be self interested and unworthy of her adoration. Her plaintive wail when things got really quite nasty “Why are you fighting?” was a signal for things to go really off piste. I think most of the audience were rooting for her by the end of proceedings. Similarly I think we are supposed to loathe Virginia Lee’s Rebecca a tough-minded over-achiever forever showing photos of her children to people but a strident and insistent performance had me catching myself quite warming to her for at least being honest about her life. I’m not entirely certain this was the playwright’s intention.

Neil Streete as Rebecca’s browbeaten husband Carl was both Kate’s ex and as it turned out Kate’s current amour fou, though a cowardly one, who, like St Peter denied the connection several times in the face of all the evidence. Like Ben his best moment came via the dressing up box - the “drag” reveal in the doorway when we see a mystery blonde revealed as Carl being one of the highlights of the evening. But like the other male roles in the play the part of Carl seemed curiously underpowered given his importance to the whole scenario, both past and present. I couldn’t entirely believe that he and Kate had ever been a couple or were having an affair in the here and now. Helen McGill’s Kate was supposedly the nexus of the whole scenario but Michael Wynne didn’t seem to have given us much to love her for. Her best moments were her comic interplays with Daniel and others when convinced that the ghostly monks/local axe murderers were haunting or stalking them and the atmosphere wasn’t really supernatural enough to make the most of that.

The New Year meltdown was played out in front of Nicole Figini’s impressive set. Given the limitation of the staging at Theatro Technis it was an achievement to create a convincing impression of space and darkness and this helped the characters appear and disappear into alcoves and “outside” in a way that was surprisingly effective. Lawrence Bolton’s costumes seemed spot on to me for characters who think they’ve all still got it as time marches past them and the multiple changes were also handled with aplomb. Phil Ley’s soundtrack seemed similarly suitable. Tom Redican’s directoral debut with the Tower got some lively performances out of his cast and the pacing was better by the end of the week but still might have been a bit faster yet. Ultimately I don’t think there was enough meat in the play to be extracted by anyone.