Everyman Palace Theatre, Cork

A lovebird sings in a cage in which his mate lies dead; the song signals protracted doom, the bird left without food or care in an apartment where a potential suicide stands at an open, inviting window.

Welcome to the world according to Samuel Beckett's Rough for Theatre 2,given a meticulous reading in this Godot Company of London production. In this merry piece of work (well, it does have its comic moments) two possibly astral adjudicators discuss the life of the candidate for self-slaughter, who remains present but unmoving throughout the conversation in which he is weighed in the balance and found wanting. Perhaps he has already anticipated the outcome of the assessment. Or maybe, like the bird, he is merely waiting for someone to care enough to save him? Some hope.

And yet, just as the justifiably sceptical response to Beckett’s nihilism creeps in to sustain us, something pierces the cynicism, some penetrating dart of symbolism reminds us once again that while Beckett never offers a bowl of cherries, he does offer a glimpse of the creature behind the pain. As a playwright, his work can allow either inertia or indulgence but in this group of plays and prose there is no laziness.

Neither is there mention of a director or of a lighting designer, but as members of a company dedicated to Beckett. They probably know who they are.

To go on, as they say. That Time is the more potent of these pieces, with the remembering head (Jim McManus) framed by light and moving almost imperceptibly as if stirred by the slow tide of Tony Rohr's voice. Oengus MacNamara recites the sucking stones sequence from Molloyas an animated theorem, and in a gown glittering like a constellation, Colette Kelly induces a subtle hypnotism as she voices Rockabye.

Ends tonight