How I Learned To Drive

Paula Vogel's short (80 minutes) play won an American Pulitzer Prize in 1998, but, having seen the current production in the intimacy of Andrew's Lane Studio, I am unsure why. The staging, by Tricksters Company, seems at least adequate, so that, for me at least, the deficit lies in the material.

There is a strong central situation, blurred and diffused by an inadequate running metaphor. It is the story of a young girl subjected to a prolonged preparation for seduction by a paedophile uncle. He is a patient man, willing to wait for her to reach 18, when the law of statutory rape will not apply.

So, over the years, he teaches her to drive, and the fast-moving scenes have names, announced by a chorus of three who also play cameo roles - mother, aunt, grandparents and others. So it's first gear, forward drive, reverse shift and so on, often a clumsily pointed cue to the current state of the action. We are told that the uncle has had other victims, so there is no doubt about his creepy intentions.

The girl finds sufficient maturity and character to frustrate her uncle's desires, and he goes into a terminal alcoholic decline; and that's it. The rest is surface stuff, intended to entertain but often jarring in such a context. Directed by Eric Weitz, Luke Hayden and Deirdre Roycroft are solid as uncle and niece; Russell Smith, Ann Sheehy and Gene Rooney take the other roles. Despite their efforts, I could not warm to this one.

Runs until May 13th; to book phone 01-6795720