After Luke and When I Was God

Cork Arts Theatre

It's the undeleted expletives which give this double bill from Conal Creedon such authenticity. The commonplace obscenity basting the scripts for both After Luke and When I Was Godhas a rhythm and an energy which banish its actual meaning, and instead function as an emphasis, acceptable as a punctuation mark.

Geoff Gould's direction of both plays relies almost entirely on the verbal accuracy and likelihood of Creedon's narrative, delivered with relish by Donncha Crowley, Denis Foley and Aidan O'Hare. First performed in 2005, After Lukehas taken on a new immediacy, placing property greed in a family context as a more or less prodigal son (the Gospel according to Luke, see?) attempts to seize the oppor- tunities of the yard run by his father and brother.

While the biblical reference is merely a nod to the title and has no further weight in the text, Donncha Crowley's performance as the father caught as always in the crossfire between his warring sons is a study of well-meaning ineptitude. And it's hard to imagine anyone else investing the words "estate agent" with such sibilant threat as O'Hare's unrep- entant prodigal. After Lukehas a dark backstory; a more complex and psychologically intricate drama lies beneath the brilliant wordplay at which Creedon excels. When I Was Godis simpler, with Denis Foley using the reminiscences and dreams of a soccer referee to reveal another family dispute described over the years in fusillades of words and bellows of hectoring affection.

This conflict between hurling (Terence MacSwiney is invoked to soothe a broken finger) and soccer is a Corkonian exercise with shades of “my son the engineer is drowning” as a subtext, yet Creedon’s skilful comedy does not rely on place-recognition for its hilarity, but on the resonant veracity with which his writing is honoured in this production.

Runs to July 31