Whatever their reasons for coming to Ireland, the immigrant characters in Paul Meade's new play for Storytellers Theatre Company agree on two things: the food is terrible and the weather is worse. Otherwise, as this production emphasises, each person's story is different. Devised by the playwright, with director Liam Halligan and the cast of six - three Romanian, two Polish, one Irish - it provides a glimpse into the life of young eastern European workers in the mushroom-picking, chicken-farming and construction industries, attempting to adapt to small-town Irish life.
Striving to dispel any monolithic view of "foreign workers", it presents a series of short overlapping scenes. It switches from Monaghan to Bucharest where, in a narrative strand that adds little more than linguistic misunderstandings, a young Irishman (Carl Kennedy) is attempting to bond with his Romanian uncle (Dan Tudor) after his mother's death. While the cast's contributions ensure that the friends' conversations are candidly humorous - especially about their employers - the necessary sense of life and spontaneity is stifled by stilted direction and a leaden pace.
Halligan's well-meaning production strives for authenticity but neglects a sense of dramatic momentum or clarity: now that they have got here, these characters are going nowhere.
· Until Saturday, then touring. Box office: 353 1 881 9613.
