The fringe binge (Part 1)

Aerowaves - Tivoli Theatre

The four dance works in Aerowaves all reflected on relationships and filtered our perception of ourselves and others. As in relationships, first impressions are sometimes misleading, none more so than the pathetic, eager-to-please figure in Love is Fastic (Catalan for disgusting). While seeming to play for laughs, Sol Pico takes a swipe at preconceptions and subtly leaves us uncomfortable witnesses to her vulnerability.

The laddish Do Hens Think?, with its coy tricks and obvious metaphors, took a shallow view of friendships, while in Liz Roche's Interrupted Light, the two performers (sisters as it turns out) display a latent unspoken trust. Never engaging eye-to-eye, they coexisted while showing complete awareness of each other. Do Hens Think? got the audience vote but I am left with haunting afterimages of Karine Ponties's superb Dame de Pic. If it wasn't for this damn festival I would have had a night free to see it again!

- Michael Seaver

The Three-legged Fool - Andrew's Lane Studio

Two mattresses, a whiskey bottle, squabbles over whose turn it is to forage for dinner: the self-contained world of a spartan squat is the setting for Anthony Ryan's play, performed by Gare St Lazare Players. "Performed" is not quite the word; the three actors, Conor Lovett, Christian Erickson and Lee De Long, appear to have inhabited these characters all their lives. As they banter about drinking and the colour and consistency of their snot, the desultory exchanges between the two men are initially unengaging, but become absorbing as a subtle power struggle emerges in which they test each other's limits, each conceding nothing. When their voluptuous neighbour, Marly, joins in, the balance of power shifts dangerously. At last, it all seems to be going somewhere: these actors, and director Bob Meyer, deserve a much more focused script.

- Helen Meany

8.15 p.m. until Saturday

Wideboy Gospel - Bewley's Cafe Theatre, Grafton Street

This play pivots around one night in the life of Snorkey - the occasion of the Ireland-England football match at Lansdowne Road in February 1995 and ensuing riot. After confessing to a past misdemeanour, Snorkey attracts the wrath of his ex-girlfriend's siblings, the Duracell brothers. The fracas between the rival football supporters wins Snorkey time but he later receives his retribution.

Ken Harmon's monologue, performed by Gavan Stanley and directed by the author, adheres too strictly to often unintelligible colloquialisms, trying in vain to create a crudely witty and interesting Dublin rogue in Snorkey. This prevents a more flowing and coherent narrative. There are some humorous turns of phrase in the script and plenty of football metaphors delivered boisterously. Stanley's performance doesn't differentiate clearly between several characters and moods, which ultimately become meshed into one. An uninspiring and disappointing play.

- Simon Carswell

8 p.m. until Saturday

Blood Pudding - Players Theatre

Mary Mallon emigrated to America in 1869, with an ambition to become a chef. What she succeeded in doing was poisoning a lot of people who ate her food, because she was, it transpired, a typhoid carrier. She spent the last 20-odd years of her life in hospital quarantine.

The Deep Ellum Ensemble from America has made a very peculiar play from this true story. It has a music-hall atmosphere, with song, choreography and an ambience of broad comedy, with a protracted dream sequence which is serious nonsense. I found it to be basically misconceived, awkwardly structured and quite badly written. A lively cast, with one actor as Mary and another four playing multiple roles or sketches, bring great energy, if not subtlety, to their task. They cannot, however, overcome their cliched material.

- Gerry Colgan

8 p.m. until Saturday

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll - International Bar

This 1990 Eric Bogosian play consists of a series of monologues, which taken together are meant to build up a composite portrait of contemporary America: its homelessness, drug addiction and distinctly anti-social behaviour.

As a play it has not aged well, and although the Cork-based Cyclone Productions animates Bogosian's lines with some energy, it is struggling against the limitations of a script that is neither subtle nor particularly insightful (and why are all the characters male, one wonders?) In what is essentially a two-hander, Peadar Donohoe produces, directs and acts, while Eoin Slattery is production assistant and the other half of the cast. Donohue brings a humour and lightness of touch to his jock characters, while also showing a skill for some good physical theatre. Slattery has an intensity that is impressive at first but becomes monotonous by the end of the hour-and-a-half. The somewhat harsh lighting is supplied by Ciaran Ruby.

- Louise East

6 p.m. until Saturday