Druid Theatre, Galway's production of Sive by John B. Keane:The core of Sive, Hynes suggests, is that it unfolds in a world that has layers of reality.

There is a social and economic reality: Mena desperately trying to escape from poverty, to establish a modern nuclear family, to be part of the new Ireland that is struggling to be born.

And there is a spiritual reality: a world of curses and blessings, of pure goodness and pure evil, of paganism fused with Christianity. The trick, of course, is to make these two realities cohere on the stage. Hynes, her terrific design team and her outstanding cast achieve this by following a rather neglected aspect of Keane's achievement: his language . . .

Crotty's performance as Mena, Gary Lydon's as her husband, Mike, and Anna Manahan's as his mother, Nana, are all beautifully attuned to the human truths of people trying to achieve decent goals in an indecent world.

Held in a masterful balance, these forces create a sumptuous drama that could not tackle harder or drive on more relentlessly if it had been written by Roy rather than the late, great John B.

Extracted from Fintan O'Toole's review. The production opened at the Olympia last night and continues after the festival.

Lyric Theatre, Belfast's production of Conversations on a Homecoming by Tom Murphy

From one angle, then, Conversations is a tangy slice-of-life, an exceptionally vivid and well-observed enactment of the mating rituals of the Irish male with the Irish pub . . . Within this apparently simple form, however, Murphy contains a range of metaphors and reflections that make this so much more than a parochial piece. At the psychic level, the play continues one of Murphy's favourite metaphors: one whole, healthy personality split between two half-men, the bitter realist Tom and the ineffectual romantic Michael. As Junior, ever the truth-telling chorus, remarks: "The two of ye together might make up one decent man". At the political level, meanwhile, the play is as timely for its dissection of the American aura of world leadership as it is for its more local resonance . . .

The power of Conall Morrison's production for the Lyric is that it is a finely tuned engine, revved up with expert timing and then let rip. The ride is hair-raising and exhilarating.
Extracted from Fintan O'Toole's review. The production is at the Gaiety Theatre until Saturday.