MEET Stella, or is it Stephanie? Even Sasha? Well it hardly matters as it turns out: nobody is going to listen anyway.

In this debut play by Zoe Cooper, a commission from Live where it’s making its premiere, getting the name of a new admin assistant right is hardly a concern for the self-obsessed staff of Scion Communications. The play might feature childbirth and mention of Christmas in keeping with its title but you’d be hard-pushed to find any true goodwill.

Instead it’s an expletive-peppered mash of embarrassing, nasty, endearing and toe-curlingly hilarious scenes, taking a dark delight in petty office politics.

Stella (Sam Neale) is that awkward new starter in the sterile, overheated offices of the call centre where staff (the sort of characters you’ll recognise) are forever talking over each other, cutting in and repeating themselves.

The constant stop-start ramblings and interrupted flights of fancy can’t be easy for the cast but these six keep the pace flowing and our laughter with it.

Performances are perfectly judged: Paul Woodson is David, the full-of-himself call centre manager with one eye on the career ladder and the other on the girls, and Melanie Hill’s Madge is a mother hen who treats staff like a surrogate family.

There’s something of a nervy Keira Knightley about Neale playing Stella whose newly-announced pregnancy becomes the catalyst for others’ regrets, including Madge who long ago gave up a career as a cruise ship singer for a son she no longer sees and Laura Norton’s Chelle who’s resentful of family responsibilities when she likes nothing better than getting bladdered on a Friday night.

Between office scenes of air con problems, appraisals and cigarette breaks come poignant ones at home featuring call centre adviser Clive (Chris Connel) and wife Louise (Phillippa Wilson) who wants a baby while he’d be content with his pond and a dog.

The one who grows on us is Madge. In Hill’s hands, she’s a fine balance of sad and funny, and the moment they all come together for a cringe-worthy office party where Madge, in sparkly dress, belts out one of her cruise ship numbers, and a drunken Chelle totters around in her heels, is brilliant.

Fresh, robust and funny, this has to be one for your diary.