Party Season review – kids’ birthday marathon pumps up parental anxiety to bursting point

Connaught theatre, Worthing
Balloons meet the sharper points of competitive parenting over a weekend of back-to-back kids’ parties, in this broad comedy of social manners

Some of my most traumatising experiences have come hosting children’s parties: the Wardrobe Ensemble’s new show should come with a trigger warning. This devised play pitches us deep into the parcel-passing, E-number-addled tantrumscape of a weekend shepherding one’s five-year-old to three (three!) tots’ birthday bashes. Such is the burden borne by 34-year-old Xander, recently – and reluctantly – back in Bristol after a temporary escape to London, obliged to reconnect with old friends and painful memories across 48 primary-coloured hours of musical statues, puppet shows and small talk with people whose kids happen to know yours.

For much of Party Season’s 95-minute span, we’re in the territory of the sitcom Motherland, a broad comedy of manners about competitive parenting, sleeplessness and ideal-home envy. Co-directed by Helena Seneca and Jesse Jones, the production brings all that to fluid, sometimes expressionist life, as a protective mum (Jesse Meadows) breathes fire, adults become kids and kids become adults – and a mysterious children’s entertainer plays our spectral MC. There are too many sharply observed moments to mention, from party-game soundtracks stymied by dodgy Bluetooth to the spoilt brat of aspirational parents who “gets anxious when there’s no structure”.