This is the play that first brought Conor McPherson to notice in London, and well worth favourable notice it was. In theatrical terms, it is simply the telling of a story in consecutive monologues by three of the central characters. But, as always with McPherson, the narrative is compelling, tautly written and marvellously wrought with observant, comic and telling detail. It is also meticulously male in its often coarse and consistently politically incorrect language, and it has the undeniable quality of truthful experience.

The story is rich and complex. Joe is a schoolboy edging into manhood, fantasising and masturbating, at once drawn and repulsed by sexual activity, more relieved than distressed by his mother's death, much attracted by his friend Damien who is different from the rest of the lads in school.

Joe's Dad owns a chipper and is in crippling debt to the local bookie, Simple Simon McCurdy, who is pushing for immediate repayment. Joe's elder brother Frank hatches a mad plan to diminish McCurdy and repay Dad's debt, while Joe's sister Carmel is doing a line with Ray, a dissolute lecturer in philosophy who beds his students and drinks copious amounts of gin to quell the symptoms of his hangovers.

The main action of the narrative rests on Frank's mad plan to avenge McCurdy's attempted destruction of the Dad. Sub-plots abound, among them Ray's decline into decadence and intellectual failure. But the main theme is Joe's emergence into the confusion of the good times and his minor redemption through Damien's betrayal. It's not deep, but it is honest and thoughtful and grippingly entertaining with countless touches of satire and black farce. It is superbly delivered, under Kevin Hely's very effective direction, by Chris McHallem as the almost carelessly decadent Ray, Karl Shiels as madly caring Frank and - especially - Andrew Lovern as the bewildered growing Joe. Recommended.

At the Project until September 19th. Thence touring to Galway, Monaghan, Castlebar, Athlone, Cork, Letterkenny, Antrim and Armagh.

Telephone booking for Project on 1850 260027.