The Trouble with Jessica is now available to rent or buy.
Sarah, the brilliant Shirley Henderson, and her architect husband, Tom (Alan Tudyk), live in a beautiful Edwardian house in Hampstead; it is the kind of house most people only dream of, with its tiled floors, ornate coloured glass windows, and expansive, modernised living and dining spaces.
It is a home that Sarah and Tom worked hard to create, and they are now about to lose it because Tom’s latest project flopped, forcing a sale to cover the debt piling up around their ears. Thankfully, they have a buyer —a mysterious businessman who spends most of his time abroad while his wife searches for the ideal London pad.
As the sale nears, Sarah and Tom decide to say goodbye to the home they love with one of their famous dinner parties with close friends Beth (Olivia Williams), a domestic violence counsellor, and her barrister husband, Richard (Rufus Sewell). However, as Beth and Richard arrive for a night of good food, great wine, and conversation, they are not alone: another old friend, Jessica (Indira Varma), who has just published a bestselling memoir, has decided to tag along, much to Sarah’s disdain. Jessica has always flirted with Sarah’s husband, and she tends to spark heated arguments and debates.
Just as Sarah feared, it’s not long before Jessica flirts with Tom, raises controversial issues, and creates a far-from-joyous atmosphere; it is almost as if she relishes popping the balloon of her North London, affluent, and liberal friends at every opportunity. But as Sarah announces that they are selling the house due to debt to a shocked Beth and Richard, Jessica vanishes into the garden, where she proceeds to hang herself from a tree, and the night is suddenly plunged into darkness. Why would Jessica hang herself in Sarah and Tom’s garden rather than her own? Who is telling lies about their past and present relationships with Jessica? How will a suicide affect the sale of the house? Should they call the police or move Jessica’s body back to her own apartment before anyone notices?
As the night turns from clafoutis and wine to cover-ups, discord, secrets and lies, Matt Winn’s satire of upper-middle-class London life is wickedly entertaining and razor-sharp.
Fans of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton’s Inside Number 9 will lap up Winn’s chamber play co-written with James Handel, and while The Trouble with Jessica doesn’t reach the heights of Yasmina Reza’s exceptional play Le Dieu du Carnage or Sally Potter’s 2017 film The Party there is much to love in this darkly delicious comedy treat, so pull up a chair, pour the wine and prepare for a night of revelations, dubious ethics and arguments in the leafy streets of London’s upper middle class.
Follow Us