It's difficult sometimes to put your finger on exactly what it is that riles you about everyday office life. Is it the one-upmanship and back-biting, the lack of appreciation, or just that your boss is snippy and incompetent or you’re avoiding having to perform secreterial duties to an incorrigible old lecher?

These conundrums and more are explored in three perfectly formed plays by Joel Harwood, Is Everyone OK?, Everything I’ve Ever Done Wrong (amplified), and Public Displays of Affection?, produced by nabokov theatre company, which focus in turn on a couple driven to boiling point over the water cooler by the degrading habits of their colleagues, a temp who narrowly escapes the attentions of a misguided, but juvenile, don juan and a karaoke-singing mum-to-be who has had enough with men full stop.

Having seen the plays at the Latitude Festival this summer, I noted how some of the text had been toned down a little for our audiences and the versatile cast had switched roles – which they do for every performance – resulting in some interesting nuances in how different actors approach the parts, especially newcomer Becci Gemmell (BBC drama Land Girls) joining the elastic nabokov fold for the first time. The audience loved it, giving the show a standing ovation at the end – in fact we were up on our feet and singing along with gusto.

Delivered like stand-up comedy sketches, these fast-paced vignettes of modern office politics drew a younger than average crowd to Watford Palace Theatre last Friday, a group only too happy to stay on after the performance and try out the brand new Green Room Bar upstairs complete with, appropriately enough, some open mic sessions and a blindingly good spot of singing from Palace Theatre staff.

Designed by Emma Wee, who designed As You Like It in 2008, the bar replaces WPT’s circle bar and offers comfy seats, bar stalls, a small stage and a montage of old production shots decorating the back wall to create more of a theatrical space.

The new creative association between our theatre and nabokov is already gleaning results by attracting a wider audience and I have high hopes for the next co-production 2nd May 1977, directed by nabokov founder George Perrin, which opens at the Palace in October.

Melanie Dakin