Frank McGuinness's 1985 play is a contemporary classic, often revived abroad, but Derry man Michael Duke's production argues convincingly that the place to see this play is on home turf. The sound of international war drums beating in the real-life background adds additional resonance.
The play, which tells the story of eight Protestant Ulstermen who sign up to fight in the first world war, is a complex investigation of identity, loyalty, patriotism and love.
We know from the outset that Kenneth Pyper is the only one who survives: the play is launched by an actor playing Pyper as an old man, still haunted by the loss of his comrades. As he remembers, they gradually take the stage, and the action progresses in three schematic acts.
We meet the men as individuals as they arrive for their training; we see them in pairs as they return to Ulster for leave; and we witness them become as one for their final, fatal drive over the barricades to the Somme.
McGuinness's massive accomplishment with the play is his precise navigation of the diverse strains of loyalty and desire that drive these men to enlist. The background is the turmoil in 1916 Ireland, which brings the soldiers' hatred of "Taigs" and their desire to fight for king and country into focus: "I'm in this for Ulster," one of the men says. "My religion too," replies another.
Homosexual and a blocked artist, Pyper is initially a dark jester figure, but he becomes the leader they need - the leader who, ironically, tragically, leads them all to die.
At the Lyric, Duke has cast extremely well - it's a terrific ensemble of Northern Irish talent - and designers Terry Loane and Conleth White are also on top form. Credibility only falters at the top of the third act, when it is hard to credit these tidy, relatively calm men as trench-weary.
But it is here that Richard Dormer, excellent throughout as young Pyper, really starts to soar. The emotion generated by his paradoxical final battle cry - "I love their lives. I love my own life. I love my home. I love my Ulster" - sends us straight to the heart of the matter: what would each of us be willing to die for?
· Until March 8. Box office: 02890 381081.
