Camden People’s Theatre, Euston, London, 30/06/2019

Hard Copy was advertised as a scathing black comedy about office life by the French playwright Isabelle Sorente, with this production being it’s English debut with a translation by Martin Goodman. It was originally performed in 2001 but even back then I’d be surprised if anyone found it that satisfying as it’s quite the oddity, a very uneven play which has severe pacing issues and a denouement which just comes across as absurd, but not in any positive way.

Even more of an issue is that it’s just not that funny, or at least the second half of the production isn’t and the attempts at humour don’t land. It starts off in a vaguely amusing manner as four women, Blanche (Amy Connery), Belle (Lucy Hanneghan), Douce (Jo Emery) and Rose (Lianne Wiedmann) arrive at work and discuss their weekends, and their insincerity towards each…