In playwright John B Keane's native Ireland, The Matchmaker has been playing to sold-out houses of 1,000 people. It's not hard to see why. Not only is Keane held in very fond regard but the actors involved - Des Keogh and Tony award-winning Anna Manahan - are also afforded the utmost respect. And the play's subject, the matchmaking antics of Mick Dicky O'Connor deep in the Emerald Isle's countryside, is an exercise in poignant popular sentimentalism.
However, unless you are an unquestioning lover of all things Oirish, you may find The Matchmaker predictable and quite old-fashioned. That the play's message - loneliness is terribly hard to bear - is written all over the set is a demonstration of the unsophisticated nature of both the writing and the production. With tales of mad widows, a lascivious English landowner and a fat Turkish woman who crushes her husband in his sleep told in epistolary form, The Matchmaker could almost be subtitled Carry On Up the Celts.
With such lame material, thank God for Manahan and Keogh. Their performances are the only things that make sitting through this overlong, sluggish play worthwhile.
Until August 27. Box office: 0131-226 2428.
