In its first moments, Max Hafler's new two-hander seems to be a slice-of-life story about a west of Ireland village creaking its way into the 21st century, with postman Eamonn making his deliveries and telling stories about the village's inhabitants. But when he brings a mysterious envelope to a farmer's wife Marie, the play shifts into a Hiberno-Shirley Valentine scenario: it is a love letter from the local bank manager, Peter, and Marie is intrigued and flattered enough to keep his attentions a secret from her husband.
But did Peter actually write the letters? The tone and focus lurch again, and now we are in mystery-thriller territory, as Eamonn reveals - far too gradually - that strange letters have been cropping up all over town, and Marie tells us how the letters she receives take a violent, profane turn. Time gets confused: it takes too long for us to figure out that Eamonn's rounds are happening in the present and Marie's story took place in the near past. There is only one thing clear about Grand by the time the interval rolls around: it is a mess.
Hafler is let down by his director. John Breen is artistic director of Yew Tree theatre company, which produced the show - and he simply should not have allowed a script in this state to reach the stage. Breen attempts to impose order with some success in the first half-hour, with Billie Traynor's Marie spotlighted in the downstage space and Eamon Rohan roaming the upstage area as Eamonn. But Breen's attempts to suggest, through sound effects and lighting shifts, the many other locations where Hafler sends the action are fussy and sloppily executed, with a crucial late-play gunshot sounding five seconds too late.
The evening's redeeming factor is the committed performances: Traynor has moments of real pathos as a woman whose life is certainly not as "grand" as she keeps saying it is; and Rohan holds our sympathy and interest despite the fact that he never functions as more than a narrative device.
· Tours Ireland until March 16. Details: 00 353 96 71238.
