Honest

Matchbox Theatre, Cafe des Irlandais, Dublin Mar 21-Apr 3 6.30pm Play and a Pint: €10 085-8079612

There’s more than a clink of resonance in launching a new pub theatre venue with a play set in a bar. As the protagonist of the young English writer DC Moore’s darkly comic monologue steadily unravels over a pint glass, you find yourself clutching a beverage and wondering if Back of the Hand Theatre is indulging in a comedy of recognition or a cautionary bit of audience participation.

Maybe it’s a little of both. Moore’s contemporary play, which debuted last year in a Northampton boozer and enjoyed a rowdy Fringe session in an Edinburgh bar, now continues its international pub crawl.

Edwin Mullane (the author of Whacker Murphy's Bad Buzzand no stranger to monologue plays) is the civil servant whose life unravels when his brutal inability to lie causes trouble at home and in work, and is exacerbated by an ensuing bender. In vino veritas, you might say. In lager, even looser lips.

And after the early shuttering of Theatre Upstairs last year, an accommodating space for new work is just what Dublin theatre needs. So raise a glass.

Can't see that? Catch this:

Heroin Axis, Dublin