Whistling Irish feuds

We are becoming more and more acquainted with the Michael G. Carneys of this world, as allegations of prolonged domestic cruelty and abuse come to light every day. In Tom Murphy's brutally chaotic early play, A Whistle In The Dark, Conleth Hill's beautifully balanced Michael is poised uncomfortably between his Co Mayo past - as represented by Dada and his hot-headed brothers - and his present in a neat 1960s Coventry home, with his nice but uninteresting English wife Betty (Abigail McGibbon). He longs to make the ultimate break for freedom but mental paralysis and external pressures constantly hold him back.

It has been a long wait for the timely Northern premiere of this sledge-hammer of a play, but Simon Magill's perfectly paced, razor-sharp production has made it worthwhile. Richard Dormer's sleazily threatening Harry, Conor Grimes's aggressive Hugo, Steve Blount's thick but honest Iggy and Damian McAdam's deceptively sweet-faced young Des are a splendid and credible ensemble as the fighting Carney brothers. Together with their loudmouthed mate Mush O'Reilly (Michael Liebman), they have brought the old feuds to England and, with no thought beyond faction fighting and turning a fast buck, are operating in the only way they know. Eldest brother Michael is the conscience, the fall guy of the family and Hill endows him with an irresistible vulnerability and wasted intelligence.

At the centre of it all, leading from behind, goading, sneering, pontificating is the paterfamilias himself played by Kevin Flood. By the end of the play, the shards of pent-up hatred and frustration are flying in all directions and when they hit, their effects are fatal.