Eden End, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds

Autumn comes to Eden End

Of the three productions in the West Yorkshire Playhouse's fascinating focus on JB Priestley, Ian Brown's pared-down, unostentatious account of Eden End is the most honest tribute to a playwright who still surprises in his ability to get under his characters' skins, into their minds. It's neither the North of England setting, although that – especially the remarks about the tedious slowness of the London train – clearly appeals to the audience, nor the fact that the writer had a particular fondness for Eden End that make it special. But in the story of the run-away stage-struck daughter returning home after 10 years and finding everything, and yet nothing, exactly as she'd left it, Priestley seems to have found a new vein of inspiration to tap.

He fleshes out, with humour and compassion, the Kirkby family (with a loyal friend and a salt-of-the-earth retainer thrown in) as real people coming to terms, or not, with the various stages of regret, frustration or disillusionment that they have reached in their lives. Even the pragmatic and compassionate Dr Kirkby, sensitively played by Ian Lindsay, isn't too sure that his life (as the sort of selfless GP we all wish we still had) couldn't have been more stimulating.

That makes it all sound rather dispiriting, but it isn't. This slice of Edwardian life – the play was written in 1934 but set just before another war, in 1912 – stares unflinchingly at an England captured in what is regarded as a golden era when people optimistically believe, without any spin, that "There is a better world coming... cleaner, happier, saner". We see with what potentially sentimental hues that autumnal picture is tinged, all 'Gipsy Love' and Elgar's Piano Quintet, but it touches us none the less for that.

The strength of the production lies in Brown's obvious faith in the play's structure and characterisation. For plot, read a few twists and turns; for great family drama, read sisterly confrontation, unrequited love and a drinking spree. Hardly the stuff of which blistering drama is made. Yet, with the audience seated on either side of the stage, pipe smoke gently wafting across the stalls, we're drawn into this family saga.

In the prodigal daughter returned, Stella (Samantha Robson) is all bright veneer hiding unfulfilled hopes and an unhappy resignation to her lot. Stella's desire for attention since childhood has not made her any less sympathetic a character except to Lilian (Dorothy Atkinson), the house keeping sister who didn't get away from dead-end Eden End. Using Stella's old boyfriend, now the object of Lilian's affections, to ignite sibling sparks and jealousies, Priestley draws an uncomfortably vivid relationship.

As delivered by this strong ensemble company, the members of this family circle gradually reveal themselves in a typically undemonstrative Yorkshire way. The exception is the late arrival, actor luvvie Charlie Appleby (an engaging Dale Rapley). Appleby has the all best lines: "Give me a part with the ghost of a bit of comedy in it, and I can make 'em laugh" rings true as he holds tipsily and unstoppably forth on himself, women and life. He hates Manchester, too: "If I'd to choose between Manchester and a glass eye, I'd rather have a glass eye, old boy" – a good joke when told in Leeds.

To 24 Nov. 'A Priestley Anthology' by Paul Taylor is on 23 Nov at 2pm. Box Office 0113 213 7700