Tom Murphy's extended one-acter, first performed in 1985, may be the quintessential night-in-a-pub play and returned-emigrant play in one. Though there is now the sense that Murphy slightly overexplained his imagery, it brilliantly evokes the sense of defeat of 1970s Ireland.
It is set in a small East Galway town where, in the 1960s, radical publican JJ inspired the local lads to rebel against church and state. Ten years later, JJ (who never appears on stage) is a washed-up drunk, but the lads still meet every night at his clapped-out pub because there's nothing better to do. Hence the excitement when actor Michael returns home from New York, but as the night wears on it becomes clear that he, too, has amounted to nothing. The sense of faded possibilities becomes overwhelming.
The play is written as heightened naturalism: what happens on the surface is bluster and pub chat, and the heart of the play is in the relationships between characters and what isn't said. Time elapses unnaturally quickly, and the challenge for the actors is to evoke all that subtext while appearing to get quite drunk.
Conall Morrison's production is weakened by some odd casting: it doesn't convey the crucial sense of people being just the wrong side of their prime. Some of the performances feel under-realised: there is little inner life emanating from Conleth Hill's Michael, and we don't get nearly enough of a hint that his story of a man who tried to set himself on fire is about himself. The focus is on Adrian Dunbar's solidly performed Tom, but the lack of relationship between him and Hill undermines much of what Murphy is trying to say.
The impeccable timing of Frankie McCafferty's one-liners as the detached, caustic Junior might be one reason the Belfast audience responded so enthusiastically to the production as comedy. In two week's time the actors may have found a better balance between darkness and humour: this pint needs more time to settle.
· Until May 4. Box office: 028-9038 1081.
