JB Priestley’s writings cleverly depict families and the secrets that lie beneath the surface.

Eden End differs from An Inspector Calls or When We Are Married as it is not driven by dramatic action. It is more of a tragic comedy that owes a lot to the influence of Chekov.

The setting is not a cherry orchard but a country doctor’s home where the same ennui, unrequited love and a returning actress are to be found.

Its characters yearn for things that lie beyond their reach or lament lost opportunities that would have changed their lives.

There is a slow build-up that sets the scene and introduces the characters in the Kirby family. The pace changes when the prodigal daughter, Stella, returns from Australia. Six years previous she fled the house to become an actress. What follows are the ripples caused by her return.

Charlotte Emmerson plays Stella with a monochrome feyness that occasionally causes her words to drift away. As her older sister, Daisy Douglas gives a good display of suppressed jealousy and anger.

Although a Chekhovian melancholy runs through the play, there are moments of comedy that lift the mood. The best of these being the curtain-raiser to act three – a music hall song and dance number – and Daniel Betts superb comic diatribe against women.

His drunkenness was a masterly demonstration of subtle underplaying.

There is a warm performance from Carol Macready as Sarah the housekeeper – Northern bluffness masking a large and soft heart.