The climax in Terrence McNally's bittersweet romance of middle age comes early as a pot-bellied short-order chef gets it away noisily with a scrawny waitress, who herself is contemplating giving up the fight with gravity for the comfort of meatloaf sandwiches.
That it comes after less than 30 seconds says it all. Sex is no longer the main event for Frankie and Johnny, two lonely people who are living out the most desperate cliche in the mating game - sad sack fortysomething losers in love staring at a future of single-portion TV dinners for the rest of their days.
They need someone to stop them going slowly mad with loneliness, but who the hell would be desperate enough to settle for either of them? So far, so soapy. Yet McNally's play still has much of its original jagged emotional truth after nearly 20 years.
Laurie Metcalf's Frankie is slowly thawed over the course of their night together by the sheer desperation of the equally damaged Johnny (Yasen Peyankov), yet Metcalf never lets us forget how close she is to turning into a mad old lady. Johnny is already there. All of which stops Frankie & Johnny, despite its Neil Simon ending, becoming just another postcard from the past.
· Until October 2. Box office: 00-353-1-677 8899
