We're used to seeing credits for set and lighting designers in theatre programmes, but how often does someone get a mention for the violence? Denis Agnew - for it is he - brings a very credible level of violence to Roxana Silbert's production of A Whistle in the Dark. It is the debut work by Tom Murphy, in which a family of five Irish brothers bring their vicious and ultimately self-destructive values to bear on early-1960s Coventry.
In truth, the violence is attributable to no one but Murphy himself. Written in 1961, the play is an unromantic study of the Irish expat. It shows these men as brutish, regressive and inward-looking, carrying with them an us-against-the-world sense of identity that is equal parts aggression, hypocrisy and self-hatred. Initially the Abbey Theatre rejected it, claiming the characters "did not exist", according to the director, Ernest Blythe. But sadly, they are all too real. And one reason the play works so well today is that it stands for the experience of not just the Irish emigrant, but anyone who strikes out on their own in spite of their social background.
Michael Carney (Dermot Kerrigan) is the elder brother who has left home to marry an English girl in an effort to better himself. When the family follow him, he counters their tribal belligerence with a soft-spoken pacifism - only to appear feeble and disloyal.
Those social bonds are so strong, argues Murphy, that they will damage anyone who tries to break them. His anger manifests itself in a brutal drama that exposes the bullying, sexism, sentimentality and tribalism of this male world to uncomfortable effect.
If Silbert's production misses some of the period precision of Conall Morrison's staging at the Abbey in 2001, it still pulses with a raw energy thanks to electrifying performances from Cal MacAninch, Damian Kearney and Ciaran McIntyre as the Arthur Miller-esque father.
· Until November 13. Box office: 0141-429 0022.
