This is an ambitious co-production between Ireland's BDNC and Wales's Lupa theatre companies of two Welsh plays performed by Irish actors. The stripped-down aesthetic - bare stage, a few indicative set pieces - is countered by Ciarán Taylor's highly physical directing and Denis Clohessy's soundscape, which seem intended to add visual and aural richness to the otherwise poor-theatre feel. This performance style, however, often feels as if it doesn't serve the texts.
Lucy Gough's 1994 script Crossing the Bar fares best: the story of a teenage Boy (Carl Kennedy) who attempts suicide in prison, the 45 minutes of action take place in his imagination as he hangs between life and death. He falls to the ground and sees a medieval Nun (Aoife O'Donnell) in his cell: she has starved herself to death and they find themselves in purgatory, watched over by a cryptic Keeper (John A Murphy). Initially, the Nun farts and eats cockroaches, while the Boy tries to escape and curses; eventually they bond, even sensually, and join together in an imaginative journey beyond their strictures, which gives the Boy the courage to continue his life. All it required was Gough's surreal-poetic text and these fine actors, but the clunky sound cues, unnecessary moving of set pieces, and mixing of mime and real action are distracting.
Things become even more confusing in Anthony Pickthall's new play The Stunning Flight of Archibald Bone, a picaresque tale of a mad- scientist type who - I think - succeeds in his quest to fly, but at his own peril. The production, though often beautiful and well-performed, is so busy it overwhelms Pickthall's script.
· Ends tomorrow. Box office: 00353 1 231 2929. Then touring.
