Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat 18 Feb

We’ve all let the occasional overstepped joke slide between friends – perhaps it appeals to a warm type of tolerance we share in social situations. But these tiny details can strike with the most devastating force if fuelled by alcohol and it’s this idea which playwright Ishy Din wrestles with in his new show Snookered.

It’s the sixth anniversary of T’s death, and his friends meet up for a sociable game of pool and a few pints to mark the occasion. But as the drinks are downed, tempers flare and secrets are revealed about the nature of T’s death and about the four friends themselves which threaten to drive them all apart.

Iqbal Khan’s play at first is a little awkward – the friends enter one by one and show that kind of aggressive bravado which is a bit of a cliché in portraying your typical “lad”. But as they settle down, the script picks up pace and throws in some well worked one-liners and comebacks which put the audience at ease and give an initial playful edginess to the production. Set in a small, backroom pub in the North of England it’s a closely intimate affair as a lot of the action revolves around the pool table: a set piece which has been organised so tightly it feels completely natural.

It’s a near-perfect demonstration of snowballing frustration. Shaf (Muzz Khan) is the stifled family man with a serious love for drink who feels trapped in his dead-end job as a cab driver, Billy (Jaz Deol) feels guilty at leaving his family to work in London; the arguments the group have over their Muslim faith, sex and careers are symptomatic of a much greater conflict brewing beneath the surface. Ultimately, they’ve moved on from each other; Din’s play explores their separation as they each want different things but seem frustratingly tied to their home town. The fact that they meet every year to mark T’s death merely crystallises this.

So Din raises intriguing questions in the minds of his audience. Why, really, are these four guys meeting up? All they seem to do is argue and bicker over trivial things. They want to know that they still matter, that their lives aren’t fading away into mediocrity and failure – this looming tension spurs the piece on with such forceful energy it takes exhaustingly impressive performances from the cast to keep it going. Din has created a bawdy yet emotional and acutely passionate piece of theatre on our deepest social fears – a matter which reflects back on us in today’s age of irrational paranoia and detachment.