My, J. B. Priestley wrote a lot of words for this play: nearly 2½ hours worth, and there’s only one set and seven characters and absolutely nothing actually happens. There is no single dramatic — or even undramatic — moment in this play: merely much high-quality to-and-fro between the Kirby family (a father, a son and two daughters), a husband, a boyfriend and a housekeeper.

This is upper-middle-class England with all its hang-ups in 1912 (although not written until 1934) and perhaps surprisingly makes nothing of the lowering First War — other than an elliptical allusion to how potentially wonderful the year 1916 might be in family affairs.

But this little beauty of a play could be placed whenever: the characters and their loves and emotions are straightforward — there is nothing subtle or deep about the perennial feelings of love, love dismissed, sibling rivalry and jealousy, adherence to the concept of a model family and a world-weary approach to a younger generation.

The practicalities are these: Eden End is the Kirby family home — occupied by Dr Kirby (William Chubb), his utterly and delightfully naïve son Wilfrid (Nick Hendrix), his unmarried and uptight daughter Lilian (Daisy Douglas) and classic housekeeper Sarah. Will there be an interruption? Well, somehow you guess there will be.

The main interruption is sister Stella (Charlotte Emmerson), who returns briefly to Eden End after a gap of some years acting and living and getting married — so, so different from the lives of her siblings Lilian and Wilfrid. She appears to want to return to her family roots, but you just know that this is unlikely to be a permanent move.

There is a further interruption in the person of Stella’s husband Charles Appleby (Daniel Betts) — again an actor and a bit of a rascal. And Dr Kirby hovers, always tired and usually about to be called out on a case.

There is no plot as such — you get the feeling that Priestley fell in love with the concept of creating meaningful characters and just gave them many words to speak in predictable situations. That said, the actors are outstanding in their roles. Emerson tops the tree as Stella, Hendrix and Betts do a great drunk scene and Douglas plays a difficult role well. Carol Macready is a buxom delight as Sarah.

You have to put Eden End down as a minor entry in the Priestley drama catalogue. But you won’t see a better production of it than this.

Until Saturday. 01865 305305 (www.oxfordplayhouse.com).