In Ireland, it seems, you can't go wrong with Maeve Binchy, and these dramatisations of six stories from the 1980s capture the energetic essence of her best work - chatty, often hilarious depictions of the antiseptic pretensions of the middle classes, with their womenfolk forever in neurotic distress.
Binchy is extraordinarily prolific and, from three big files of her early short stories, Jim Culleton and his Fishamble company have created a theatre piece which is a chimerical beast, like a big woolly jumper with six arms knitted on.
Each story kicks off with a first-person monologue of a gal in a dilemma, often of her own making. The supporting cast whirls through the blank, multi-purpose set, rearranging its blocks into stage furniture, in almost youth-theatre-ish solutions to the demands of the composite text.
There are intriguing strands of autobiography mixed with the extremely sharp observations: a freelance agony aunt having an affair with her unhappily married editor, a self-sufficient, virgin journalist who suddenly discovers the rituals of marriage, femininity and sexuality in her late 30s, and a great listener and problem-solver who almost flings herself into an affair but narrowly escapes with dignity intact, protected by an unbridled wit.
Binchy's is a curious yet recognisable world, where beauty therapists and wedding boutique madames are imperious gorgons terrorising hapless clients, and women have their nerves shredded during expensive dinner parties that inevitably collapse into farce.
Despite the intelligence of the writing, there is very little of darkness or danger, poverty or infirmity in these early tales - just a wise, benign ribbing that manages to deliver a belly-laugh every few minutes.
Surprisingly for such an experienced director as Culleton, there is only a thin veneer of style to the piece, owing perhaps to the occasionally incoherent gabble of text in his adaptation, with its insanely ambitious stage-logistics. Even so, the six actors warm themselves well into their 15 minutes of solo limelight and the capacity crowds lap it up.
Runs until March 31. Box office: 00 353 1 679 5720.
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