Stereophonic ★★★★★

A perfect setupfor voyeuristic time travel, Stereophonic takes the audience back to the heady, drug-fuelled days of the Seventies, when new music was everything and Artistic temperaments were the accepted excuse for outrageous behaviours. This three-hour-long piece, which, according to those in the know, has significant references to Fleetwood Mac, is set entirely within a recording studio – both the soundproof booth and the green room cum engineering room.

A successful band is making a new album. There are five main performers – two women and three men – are already exhausted, partly from the process and possibly more significantly from the copious quantities of stimulants – a kilo bag of cocaine – that is fuelling it.

It begins with the band arriving for a recording session, either languidly slumping on the beanbag cushions or arguing about new riffs. They talk over each other constantly, making the already substance-slurred dialogue hard to discern at times, but as much of the speech is atmospheric rather than essential to plot development, it enhances more than it detracts.

The recording session seems to have been going on for months; the tape is almost full, and the hunger for perfection is insatiable – the recording, over-recording, revising – changes which are imperceptible to the audience but which, to the band, are the difference between dereliction and ecstasy. And this is the brilliance of the piece – there are huge fights and shouting, but there are also silences which carry enormous weight as the band and engineers struggle to comprehend each other. What could be seen as self-indulgence on the part of the actors and director, is actually the strength, the quiet spaces build the drama.

Every performance is a standout. The two engineers – Charlie and Grover – Andrew R Butler, and at this performance, brilliant understudy Sam Denia – work as comic foils for the band, inserting some inane banter and observations into intense scenes, though as the play progresses they also develop and mature, fleshing out their characters into fuller versions of themselves. Jack Riddiford is stunning as Reg – the depth and intensity of his performance fuel real emotion, especially in his scenes with lead singer Diana, played by the mesmeric Lucy Karczewski. The leveller is Chris Stack as Simon, mostly the voice of reason until he totally loses it over indiscernible vibration issues with the snare drum, which come close to derailing everything. The relationships between the band members form as much of the story as the recording further embeds the era, with Holly (Nia Towle) and Diana being subjected to the misogyny and belittling endemic at the time. Not only does the cast play their parts with integrity and style, but each also plays their instruments with a skill befitting a band of this stature.

Director Daniel Aukin’s production deservedly has received huge critical acclaim on Broadway with several Tony nominations and has garnered equal critical success in the West End.

When Stereophonic leaves the Duke of York’s theatre in a few weeks’ time, those who have missed it, will truly have missed out – while those able to get to one of the stops on the upcoming US tour will get to savour a unique and compelling theatrical experience.