THERE’S nothing like an awkward family dinner party to make an audience squirm.

In hit comedy What’s In A Name? father-to-be Vincent - played by Inbetweeners star Joe Thomas - and his partner Anna are invited to dinner by his sister Elizabeth and her husband, Peter, joined by childhood friend Carl. The meal is lovingly prepared, the wine carefully selected, and the group is prepared for a night of witty banter and sophisticated chat.

But a startling revelation about the name chosen for Vincent’s and Anna’s expected child becomes the catalyst for a heated argument which spirals hysterically out of control. No-one holds back - egos, childish resentment and unspoken feelings are relentlessly and hilariously exposed for the first time.

The play is adapted from French film Le Prènom, by Matthew Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière. Initially a stage sensation that took Paris by storm in 2010, the English-language adaptation premiered in the UK two years ago.

Next month it’s at the Alhambra, on its first UK tour, starring Joe Thomas, best known for TV comedy gems The Inbetweeners and Fresh Meat.

“It’s such a great script,” says Joe. “I read it really quickly, which is always a good sign. “It’s so light on its feet and you think it’s going to be about class and education and the battles we fight over culture, but it moves really laterally then it turns a corner.”

Joe is tight-lipped about what exactly is around that corner, but does reveal that the play becomes about family issues and chinks in the characters’ armour, and how Vincent “seems like a complete wind-up merchant in the beginning but by the end he’s deeply cut-up”.

The action takes place in Elizabeth and Peter’s Peckham flat. When Vincent drops a bombshell about the name he’s chosen for his unborn child, the siblings and their significant others begin to pick at old sores and long-held resentments. Childhood friend Carl has his own bombshell to drop.

At times they’re a very un-PC bunch, and the script straddles the line between funny and offensive. After three Inbetweeners seasons and two films, Joe is no stranger to that: “It’s an incredibly precise act of judgement that’s required but this play is an exploration of what PC actually is and I think that’s interesting territory. It shows the intelligence of the writing, how funnily and deftly that idea is explored.”

Producer Adam Blanshay says the play is “very funny but also very sophisticated and dark and a little sardonic”

“And it’s written from a neutral standpoint so everyone is offended and applauded in equal measure.”

A few tweaks were made for the touring production. “One of the things I’m keen to explore is how in a play driven by men the female characters have the upper hand in the end,” says Adam. “The last time we did the show it was pre-#MeToo. Now we’re looking at it post-#MeToo and bringing that female empowerment theme.”

Alex Gaumond, who plays Carl, says there are universal truths among the laughs: “It’s essentially about a family and everybody has a family. And most people have been at a family dinner where everybody falls into the category they’ve evolved into over time, like ‘the joker’ or ‘the sensible one’. When those roles are twisted and turned around, as they are here, with plot twists and people finally telling others what they think of them, it’s thrilling and hilarious to watch.”

Miranda and Musketeers star Bo Poraj (Peter) says the play taps into the Zeitgeist, with Peter and Elizabeth having given their children quirky names. “The fashion for strange names for kids is not something I’ve seen picked apart in public discourse before,” he notes. “This is 90 minutes of laughter. I hope people will find it a sort of release. We need a bit of levity in these crazy times.”

l What’s In A Name? is at the Alhambra from April 9-11. Call (01274) 432000.