WITH its snowy setting and scenes of New Year's Eve celebrations, you might be forgiven for thinking that Waters of the Moon was a festive treat that had fallen behind in the schedules.

Despite superficial seasonal touches, this "forgotten" 1950s drama isn't really the sort of thing to inspire that cosy Christmas feeling, though.

In fact, Salisbury Playhouse have timed their first main house production of the new year perfectly.

With its themes of loss and loneliness, N C Hunter's sobering play is as chilly and cheerless as any January morning.

The setting is a hotel on the edge of Dartmoor, a few days before New Year's Eve. The snow lies thick all around and continues to fall as we meet the hotel's permanent residents - humourless widow Mrs Whyte (Irene Sutcliffe), permanently dozing Colonel Selby (Christopher Benjamin), an Austrian musician in self-imposed exile (Jamie Newall) and the flighty Mrs Ashworth (Katharine Barber).

Meanwhile, rather perfunctorily attending to their needs are the hotel's owners - yet another widow, Mrs Daly (Sara Coward) and her two grown-up children, one of them, John (Will Adamsdale) with a weak chest and his sister, Evelyn (Susie Trayling) with a broken heart.

You get the impression that, even if it wasn't the middle of January, things would still be pretty chilly in this hotel.

All that changes with the arrival of Helen Lancaster (Isla Blair) and her family, whose car has got stuck in a snowdrift.

The glamourous socialite with her fancy London ways is initially greeted with reserve, but wins over most of the residents when she gives them the best New Year's Eve party they've had in years.

But as the champagne corks pop, feelings of envy and desire rise to the surface. Helen toys with the affections of sensitive Austrian Julius, but has no real feelings for him, while miserable Evelyn - herself in love with Julius - compares the arrival of Helen's family to that of "swans on a pond full of ducks".

Hunter's play combines humour and pathos to thought-provoking effect, and gives us some great characters, especially the vivacious Helen, played with brilliant insensitivity by Isla Blair.

Let's hope there are more unearthed classics where this came from.