When you climb the stairs to the Royal Court’s smaller space, you never know where you will end up. It might be a seaside hotel bedroom (Scarborough), where you nestle on the padded ottoman, or a suburban house in Sweden (The Family Plays), where you lurk on the decking. For Levi David Addai’s sparky new play Oxford Street, it is a tacky high street sports shop, where you perch on a circular plastic seat amid the action. The pumping soundtrack and garish lighting are instantly familiar to anyone who has ever ventured into one of these emporia, as are the hassled staff shoving racks of nasty sports shirts.

And it is a similar level of witty accuracy in his depiction of character and situation that makes Addai’s play such a joy. Addai focuses on Kofi, a member of the “loss prevention staff” (a security guard to you and me), and the trauma that befalls him when a former schoolmate takes up work in the shop. Kofi, 23, is a decent, hard-working graduate, who hopes for better things. But Darrell has less noble ambitions and his own special twist on the concept of retail therapy. He also radiates contained violence, so when he asks Kofi to turn a blind eye as he liberates some stock, Kofi is put in an agonising position.

Addai builds up to the dilemma in a series of neat, vivid and funny little scenes. His characters, brought to life in Dawn Walton’s beautifully acted production, are believable, particularly Loraina (Preeya Kalidas) and Husnad (Shane Zaza), the sales assistants, Emmanuel, the sage old head of security (Cyril Nri), and Alek (Kristian Kiehling), the dour Polish security guard.

There is a snap and crackle to their workplace banter, but Addai also deftly depicts the sapping tedium that sucks the dreams out of these underpaid workers. Ashley Walters, glinting with charm and danger as Darrell, and Nathaniel Martello-White, quiet and conflicted as Kofi, are excellent. The only trouble is that you long for Addai to dig a little deeper. But this is a sympathetic comedy that rummages to good effect in the stock room of Britain today.

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