Liam O Muirthile's fascination with ritual has been evident in the three plays he has written so far for Amharclann de hIde. in Tine Cnamh and his new play, Liodan na hAbhann, he reaches to invest old rituals with new meaning in a society which is pyschologically aching for them. Liodan focuses on an attempt by a brother and a sister to reinvent our grieving rituals to lay to rest a young man who - like so many others - has committed suicide. The "devotions" their mother engaged in are rejected by them in a hilarious scene as dry forms of words. So what are they left with?

With the aid of a deus ex machina - an enjoyably Corkonian version of Marine Boy, played by Frank Mackey - they cast a new ritual, which ends in striking litany from the pen of the poet O Muirthile. The guitar music - played by Rodrigo y Gabriela - summons up a flamenco culture which can cope with death and darkness, and the suppression of this culture under Franco is an obvious comment on the Irish emotional paralysis. The problem in this play - a problem also felt in his other ones - is that the drama is less shown than told, and the ritual is less gone through than described.

Admittedly, director Brid O Gallchoir is up against it in the small space of the Crypt, but she needed to bring the action down into the audience to help us participate in the ritual. Joan Sheehy and Frank Conway can't fully escape from being talking heads, because they are given no meaningful physical expression of ritual by direction or script. That said, it was a pleasure to see Amharclann de hIde yet again tackling challenging new work, which is definitely worth seeing.

Runs until December 11th. To book phone 01-6713387. The script is published by Cois Life.