David Ives’ collection a short plays deal with language, and the fragility of chance in shaping our relationships with others. However, despite the somewhat lofty subject matter, this production of All in the Timing made for a pleasant, if not earth-shattering, break during the point at which revision for even the more cavalier amongst us is taking place in earnest.

Things did get off to a shaky start though. The first two plays (Sure Thing and The Philadelphia), both set in a café featured some unconvincing acting, probably the result of under-rehearsal. There were laughs to be found, however, in the stop-and-start nature of exchanges in the evening’s opener, which brought in mind this year’s Constellations which was on at the Royal Court, and Jennie King’s laugh, which I suspect is in part an impression of Lois Griffin off Family Guy. Another highlight came in the form of Helena Fallstrom, who managed to give stationary a kind of mystical allure.

And indeed, the next play, English Made Simple, which featured both Fallstrom and Stephen Bermingham as a pair learning to decode and decipher the underlying meaning behind everyday exchanges was stronger. The staging in both this and the final piece had an appealing cleanliness to it, a scarf and jacket hanging off suspended coat hangers. The interplay between the two was nice, the shouts of ‘dead end’ at various deal-breaking junctures having a pace the two actors brought out well.

The closer, The Universal Language, built on this and was the most enjoyable play of the collection. Although her stammer was overdone, Freddie Poulton’s glee and liberation towards the end was very watchable, the interaction between her and director-also-featuring-as-actor Peter Lunga’s teacher character engaging. This final play had as its main concern the learning of a kind of more Germanic Esperanto and much of the humour was derived from some of the words being reminiscent of various kinds of pasta and cooking methods. All in all then, All in the Timing provides a welcome, short diversion from more pressing academic pursuits.