It is to the Abbey Theatre's credit that an Irish theatre is the first in these islands to stage John Patrick Shanley's 2005 Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play. Its ostensible theme - clerical sex abuse in 1960s America - resonates deeply here. The play's excellence lies, however, in Shanley's refusal to preach; he uses the interplay between his characters as a way to challenge the notion of moral rectitude. Sister Aloysius is the principal of a Bronx Catholic middle school - rigid, righteous, and driven; Father Flynn is a teacher there - easygoing, likeable, modern. Aloysius recruits a young Sister (Gemma Reeves) to report on Flynn, and becomes convinced the priest is behaving inappropriately towards a troubled student, Donald. Flynn insists he is just helping out a young person.
It is a story full of urgency that needs to grip the audience from the start. Gerard Stembridge's Abbey production doesn't do so, largely because it doesn't take Shanley's cues to play the material right on the edge of potboiler and stereotype. Brid Brennan's Aloysius is a drawn, stern woman when she needs to reveal a scary, zealot side. Aidan Kelly's Flynn is a nice enough guy, but we need to melt in his presence in order to have what seems to be revealed about him really knock us for six.
The production only comes to life in the brief scene between Aloysius and Donald's mother (Starla Benford) when Shanley adds homosexuality, race relations, and spousal abuse to the social mix. Also missed, crucially, is the play's rich seam of humour. This play is welcome, but the production feels too much like school.
· Until November 25. Box office: 353 1 878 7222.
