Irish Times writers review Conor McPherson's play This Lime Tree Bower  at the Draíocht Studio, Blanchardstown and  and a production of Ira Levin's Deathtrap at the Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick.

This Lime Tree Bower

Draíocht Studio, Blanchardstown

Conor McPherson's first plays were monologues, well-crafted but somewhat insubstantial pieces of storytelling. Then he moved to interweaving several monologues and, just as two or more speakers enrich recorded sound, his work took a quantum leap forward. This current production is of one of his early plays to grow in this way, and it is still a rewarding stage entertainment.

George McMahon plays Joe, a student close to Leaving Certificate, who lives with his father and brother above the family fish-and-chip shop. This is rites-of-passage time for him; he takes his first drink, has dreams of sex and becomes innocently involved in an ugly rape incident and a major robbery.

His brother Frank (Mark O'Brien), who works in the shop, has no aspirations to education. He knows that his widowed father is being financially exploited by Simple Simon, the local bookie and moneylender, and is obsessed with balancing the books through the aforesaid robbery - and he does.

The third character is Ray (Peter Gaynor), a university lecturer, who combines being a satyr to his female students with a more serious relationship with the boys' sister Carmel. He is also on the road to alcoholism, and his accounts of various mishaps and dilemmas are deplorably funny.

All three roles are beautifully written, with their cadences of credible speech and vivid descriptions of the overlapping action involving them. The actors deliver their pieces of the jigsaw with conviction, although at times unnecessary emphasis. The words themselves are sufficiently colourful and communicative, and are best served by simplicity. But this is a minor reservation, concerning perhaps no more than first-night enthusiasms in a play and production, directed by Michael Scott, that engage very nicely with their audience.

Runs until Saturday

Gerry Colgan

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Deathtrap

Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick

Hanging on the walls in an otherwise ordinary Connecticut living-room are several guns, an axe, handcuffs, a crossbow, and a sharp-looking dagger. This is memorabilia from the past successes of a washed-up writer of theatrical thrillers, Sidney Bruhl (Keir Dullea). As Deathtrap opens, he has been sent a brilliant new play by former student Clifford (Tadhg Murphy).

Bruhl is out of ideas and money; and he's envious of the younger writer's achievement. So it's no surprise when he starts musing about bumping off Clifford, and pretending the script is his own. Bruhl's wife Myra (Mia Dillon) tries to convince herself that he's joking. But we know better. As Bruhl admits, you don't put weapons onstage unless you intend using them.

This is the appetising set-up for Ira Levin's 1978 crowd-pleaser, directed here by Terry Byrne. Levin doesn't take his self-referential script too seriously, but he also remembers to deliver plenty of shocks: you are guaranteed to jump out of your seat at least once. Sometimes Levin's humour and sensationalism clash, especially in a flabby second act. But for the most part, this is a lively production of a good old-fashioned thriller. The problem is that the play isn't just old-fashioned - it's dated too.

Jokes about 1970s America fall flat. A subplot about an eccentric European psychic (Noelle Brown) may have been funny 30 years ago, but we've seen this character several times. And then there's the secret Bruhl has been keeping from his wife. Contemporary audiences are unlikely to be as shocked by Bruhl's private life as Levin supposes.

Although there are too many fluffed lines and performative mishaps, there is some very nice acting here, especially from Murphy and Dillon. This is certainly an enjoyable production. But it's difficult to establish why we're being presented with this play, when there are many superior - and more relevant - thrillers. With a cast this good, Deathtrap feels like a missed opportunity.

Runs at the Belltable until Saturday and then tours until April 30th to the Everyman, Cork, Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny, Siamsa Tíre, Tralee and Andrew's Lane Theatre, Dublin

Patrick Lonergan