Considering this morning's news mentioned there really is an asteroid hurtling towards us - due to arrive in 2027 with a 2 percent chance of impact - The Last Quiz Night on Earth is a timely production. In Alison Carr's 2020 play, a rock the size of Singapore is imminent and all attempts to deflect it have failed. So what do you do on your final evening?

Carr's four characters, plus their audience, have chosen to gather in a pub called The Four Horseman (of the Apocalypse) to face their fate. The pub's paraphernalia (in Peter Butler's witty design) includes boxes of MOD Emergency Rations (never to be eaten), TV screens already showing the test card, and a few dismal Christmas decorations for cheap cheer. A huge retro jukebox plays karaoke tunes and music clues. Quiz Master Rav has decided to host his regular event regardless, describing the event as “My best quiz night ever. Never to be repeated.”

Chaos and grid-lock can be heard through the doors. Inside, it's a different kind of insanity. The 'End of The World' jokes are legion. The music puns, equally so; from Europe's The Final Countdown to Cher's If I Could Turn Back Time and Brenda Lee's Don't They Know It's The End Of The World.

It's actually quite a tough quiz. We are provided with quiz sheets and pens to attempt it. The rounds come thick and fast and our efforts do feature in the finale. On any other evening it could be any other quiz night but, as we're all going to die, suppressed back stories gradually emerge.

Landlady Kathy inherited the pub from her dad, and Lisa Gorgin puts in a meteoric performance as the passed-over 40-something 'Queen of her Kingdom,' with a dolled-up blond hairdo and an (understandably) fixed smile. In from the street stumbles Bobby, the brother she has not seen in years, desperate for a futile getaway car. Sam Redford plays him as an up-front loser who could never sustain a relationship, least of all with his own family.

The other interloper is the waif-like Fran, played in a hugely engaging and comical manner by Pria Kalsi, who must have the shortest CV in theatre programme history. Fran appears to be fleeing the catastrophe in gumboots, nightie and blue leather coat, and has sought Rav out for her last night on earth. She's been stalking him electronically ever since a sorry fling at school. Unfortunately, bumptious Rav (dynamically played as a small-time showbiz charismatic by Ayan Philip), can barely remember her.

So, with only hours to go, we have two forlorn couples flung together, wanting to die being loved in the last chance saloon. It's a bit like ITV's Long Lost Families but without the happy ending.

With the time constraints, we frustratingly only see sketches of the drama. The character's stories are constantly being interrupted by yet another quiz round. The 'quiz' and the 'play' in this show are on their own collision course and diminish each other in the process. There are plenty of laughs to compensate and the very idea that the official TV announcement of the End of the World should be made by Claudia Winkleman of all people is pure genius but I'm afraid it all felt rather inconsequential.
Apart from the asteroid, that is. Watch this space.

Reviewed by Chris Eldon Lee at the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme on Wednesday 12 February. The Last Quiz Night On Earth continues to show at the venue until Saturday 1 March.

Photo credit: Andrew Billingham