The political climate of Ireland in the 1940s, rife with censorship, suspicion and double-speak, had inherent elements of farce. Satirist Arthur Riordan has seized on this for his new musical, set in Dublin during the second world war. With British spies and codebreakers added to the mix - along with an Austrian Nobel prize-winning physicist, a shifty radio broadcaster, a Nazi-sympathising IRA man, and writers Myles nag Copaleen and John Betjeman - the result is a clever, stylish and lighthearted treatment of a subject that this writer has explored before: Irish neutrality.
Part of the Dublin theatre festival, Lynne Parker's production for Rough Magic relishes the period details of bicycles, trench coats and dark, womb-like pubs, lavishly visualised by designer Alan Farquharson. Bell Helicopter's score, performed live, is in a jazz/cabaret style; occasionally, it swamps the actors. Riordan's rhyming lyrics rush headlong in pursuit of puns and punchlines as his characters swap crossword clues and literary allusions - repeating them often enough for those sitting in the back to get the jokes.
The opening number, Remember Not to Patronise the Irish, sung by the English spies, has impressive satirical bite, as does a scene in which a bar counter becomes an altar and the barman (Declan Conlon) a priest offering communion. But this sharpness is later sacrificed to a plot involving cod science, time travel and an English-Irish romance, accompanied by an excess of sweet torch songs that slow things down.
While the ensemble playing is slick, individual characterisations tend to strike one note and stick to it - especially Cathy White's Liza Minnelli-like femme fatale and Peter Hanly's brainy English codebreaker. Both look the part perfectly, but their performances don'tdevelop beyond the striking of poses. This is merely the past recycled as a series of beguiling images.
· Until October 9. Box office: 00 353 1 677 8899.
