On their way to Galway, caravanners Bronagh and her new partner Arjun stop off at the Catholic shrine of Knock at the instigation of Arjun's mother, Meera, who believes that she is dying. Here, in the field close to the place where, in 1869, the Virgin Mary is said to have miraculously appeared, Bronagh's troubled teenage daughter makes a mysterious new friend. At the same time, the rest of the party are discovering new things about themselves too: lonely Meera discovers a reason to live, and frustrated Arjun realises that he doesn't want to be tied to a job he hates.
The only miracle about Neil D'Souza's unconvincing play is that it has found a berth on the Tricycle stage. Actor-turned-first-time writer D'Souza shouldn't be prematurely written off on the basis of this effort, but he needs better support than he is given here in a woeful production that, like the play, can't make up its mind if it is an Irish-Indian clash of cultures sitcom or a serious, tragic drama about belief.
At times it is like The Kumars meets late Tennessee Williams. In more experienced hands, it might indeed be both, but here the sudden shifts of tone and revelations are awkwardly handled by both writer and director, leaving the actors to do a series of emergency stops and sudden u-turns.
There is something rather touching about D'Souza's exploration of the miracles of everyday life, but in its current form, this is a play that is done no favours by being exposed by lack of preparation. The actors struggle to make sense of characters who are still at the drawing-board stage - it would take divine intervention to rescue this dire evening.
· Until July 7. Box office: 020-7328 1000.
