Brighton

Garter Lane Arts Centre, Co Waterford Until May 15 8pm 051-855038

"I continue to cling to my place in the world," says Gillian Hanna's engagingly stubborn Lily, an elderly Irish resident in a London nursing home. "I admire your tenacity," replies Mark Lambert's recently paralysed Jack, "I wish I shared it."

That exchange tells you everything you need to know about Jim Nolan's new play for Garter Lane. An unapologetic paean to inspiration and survival, Brightonurges us to park our cynicism at the door.

Whether you can, of course, depends on your tolerance for a tone of unwavering and nostalgic brightness - present everywhere from the tranquil set to the playful banter between ardent football fans Lily and her gay carer Dave (Andrew Macklin) - which swallows up the more serious subjects: institutional care, gambling, gay rights and, more remarkably, euthanasia.

There's scope in Ben Barnes's production for a comedy with a serious edge, but sentimentality simply gets the better of it, where Brighton holds a Damascean conversion for all involved and the plot unfurls through glib lines and gentle jokes with few surprises.

Undemanding stuff, it gets by on neatly judged performances, where no character is ever allowed to give up on another. Spoonfed every significance, though, the audience may feel that the play has given up on them.

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