“People of our generation aren’t able to die for good causes any longer‚” declared Jimmy Porter in 1956. It’s a sentiment echoed by Tony Bolton in this 1958 play by Doris Lessing, who on the evidence of this was a far better novelist than a playwright.

Newly returned from national service to join his politically committed but emotionally chaotic mother Myra at home, Tony – whose childhood home was blown up, along with his dad, during the war – longs for a world that is as safe as houses and where his mother always wears lipstick and behaves with dignity. But Myra, played with a compelling mix of magnificent swagger and emotional fragility by Clare Holman, is determined to keep fighting for the causes she believes in, even if events in Hungary and the USSR have taken their toll.

Since it is set at a time when there was a mass defection from party politics and increasing cynicism about politicians, it’s easy to see why director Paul Miller thought this is a play that might have traction as our own general election approaches. But it’s painfully stilted and lacks dramatic impetus until the second half; some characters are fatally underwritten and it’s wordy – everyone says everything at least twice.

It’s not a good play – even the setting in the hall of the family home is bizarre and not solved design-wise at all – but it’s not without interest. Tony, fascinatingly played by Joel MacCormack in a most counterintuitive way that succeeds in making monotony compelling, is Jimmy Porter with the anger leached out of him, and themes of female empowerment and liberation that would be explored more deeply in The Golden Notebook are evident. But while it reminds that political disenchantment is nothing new, there’s a weary cynicism in its suggestion that protest is futile and there’s little we can do to bring about real change.

• At the Orange Tree, Richmond, Surrey, until 16 May. Box office: 020-8940 3533.