On October 31 1978 an Irish amateur side, Munster, played the mighty All Blacks, the undisputed kings of rugby. Munster played as if their lives depended on it, and even the earthworms in the Limerick pitch were cheering for them. The Goliaths didn't know what had hit them: the score was 12-0 to the Irish side.
The match was never televised, so lives on only in people's memories, in folklore, and now in John Breen's engaging play, which weaves together the stories, real and imagined, of those whose lives were touched by the match in some way. At its centre is the sudden death, during the game, of player Donal Canniffe's father, and the story of Gerry, who sneaks off to see the matches and so misses the birth of his twin sons. His wife, however, gets her own sweet revenge.
Part of the appeal of the evening is the way it makes the provincial seem like the centre of the universe, and ordinary people's lives significant. A small play with a big, unaffected heart, it's staged with considerable verve by Breen and County Mayo's Yew Tree Theatre, who turn the evening into more than just an Irish Up'n'Under - though, as with John Godber's play, you get all the thrill of a match played out on stage. The versatile cast of six are in a constant state of transformation as they play the rival teams, spectators, assorted bystanders, and even small children, dogs and cars. Like the match itself, the whole evening is a gloriously live experience.
This is by no means a sophisticated piece of theatre, and it falls back on stereotype as much as the hit Irish comedy Stones in His Pockets. But like that play, this show supplies a winning formula of comedy and pathos, and has a wide enough appeal to embrace sporting ignoramuses such as myself, who don't know one end of a rugby ball from the other.
· Until February 9. Box office: 020-7494 5075.
