Laurence Fox and Bill Piper in Treats

Piper has, ever since the days of her teenage marriage to Chris Evans, had to live her own private life out publicly; she’s used to having her every move monitored in the press. And, whether she actively courts it or it’s purely coincidental, that situation has now been made even more complicated by the fact that she’s reportedly dating one of her co-stars, Laurence Fox. In a case of art imitating life, the last few weeks have seen her playing out a public roundelay in which she has been seen seeking comfort and emotional support from Evans, while dating Fox (whom her onstage character dumps). This wouldn’t, of course, be relevant to the art that she’s also trying to express as an actress, except for the fact that her stage character, too, vacillates between two men.

Kris Marshall in Treats

In Christopher Hampton’s 1976 play, Piper plays Ann, who is trying to choose between returning to an abusive but addictive relationship with her former boyfriend, journalist Dave (Kris Marshall) or staying with the handsome but dull office colleague Patrick (Fox). You may need a spoiler alert before you read the rest of this paragraph, or indeed the programme before you see the play. Hampton admits in the latter to writing Treats after adapting Ibsen’s A Doll’s House for Broadway in 1971, as a way of turning the tables on that play’s famous climax: to write a play, as he says, “where the door gets slammed at the end, and the woman comes back.”

Piper, with her wide gash of a mouth revealing a toothy grin, is by turns both moody and marvellous as the conflicted woman, slowly revealing her character’s vulnerability and need. Poised and strong yet vulnerable and thoughtful, reservoirs of pain flow out of her during the emotional rollercoaster ride that her prevaricating character goes on. One senses that despite her young years, Piper has already been forced to make some of these choices herself.

[AD]Marshall, meanwhile, brilliantly captures the edge of sexual allure and ugly menace that makes Dave so abrasive and yet so compelling. While Fox—a lanky puppydog of a man who is far more sincere—may fail to win her in the play, justice is served in real life since he’s the one who gets the girl offstage.

This smart, hip play cuts deceptively deeply and painfully in Laurence Boswell’s sharp, elegant revival, making Treats work a treat all over again.