Big Ole Piece Of Cake

Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray Previews Fri, Sat 8pm €18/ €16
mermaidartscentre.ie Civic Theatre, Tallaght Opens Nov 1-6 8pm €22/€18

More than three years ago, Fishamble: the New Play Company staged the debut work by the Dublin writer Sean McLoughlin. Following two lost Dublin souls to a Ballymun tower block soon to be demolished, McLoughlins first play,

Noah and the Tower Flower

, demonstrated a keen eye for character and an ear for amusingly blunt dialogue, if not a tight grasp on the mechanics of drama. (The plot hinged on a gun concealed in Act 1 and too many of its details could have come straight from video rentals.)

It won the Irish Timesaward for Best New Play, the Stewart Parker Trust Award for Best First Play and earned McLoughlin a commission from the Abbey.

Since then, McLoughlin has been busy with other, more solid rewards bestowed on talented new playwrights: screenwriting. But here, finally, comes his second play, a three-hander in which two unemployed brothers are invited to share an evening with a lonely ex-teacher for a drunken evening of history lessons, male bonding and simmering tensions.

Fishamble is again producing, Jim Culleton is again directing, and even Noah's design team has regrouped, but a lot can change in three years.

Here’s hoping they leave the gun behind.

Can't see that? Catch this:

Jumping the Sharks, Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin