An Irish Times writer reviews New Year's Eve Can Kill You at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.

New Year's Eve Can Kill You

Lyric Theatre, Belfast

By Jane Coyle

The Marie Jones conundrum persists - on the one hand, a six-week sell-out show by a writer who is as dear to Belfast audiences as their favourite maiden aunt; on the other, another reworking of a familiar play, which was once a terrific comedy but is now past its sell-by date. It may be billed as a world première, but as soon as one sees the open-topped Ford Escort taxi, the dreary flats and the star-lit winter sky, there is little doubt that we are back on well-trodden ground. This time around, the taxi driver is young Junior, engagingly played by the irrepressible Packy Lee. A week previously Junior was a pizza-scoffing couch potato; now here he is, keen as mustard and revving to go. He's following in his beloved Granda's tyre-marks, with his first licence in his top pocket, a brand-new blue pullover and his own personalised number on the OK Cabs' radio mic, controlled by the veteran Wingnut (Walter McMonagle).

As the last hours of New Year's Eve tick by, Junior sets out on his eventful first night as a cabbie. Under Dan Gordon's energetic direction and in a dull, uninspiring set, the crazy passengers come and go, each carrying his or her own private drama - a flamboyant American woman and her über-excited daughter, a drunken kilted Scotsman, a brace of St John's ambulance attendants, a grieving widow with her dead husband's ashes in her handbag, a bouncer in a gorilla mask, a Daniel O'Donnell fan, a ventriloquist and his dummy, a Salvation Army collector, and a dodgy-looking fellow in a horse's head. But, unlike this play's previous incarnation as Christmas Eve Can Kill You, the countdown to the big occasion lacks a real sense of urgency or resolution. This is due more to the script than to the best efforts of the cast, most notably Richard Orr and newcomer Maclean Stewart. There is plenty of folksy Belfast humour - though not of the paint-stripping variety normally associated with Jones - but the overall effect feels strangely flat and inconsequential.

With the Lyric embroiled in a financial struggle to replace its crumbling building, it is hard to argue with a show which sold out almost as soon as it was announced. But the time has come for Marie Jones to divert her immense talent into new avenues, leading towards something on a par with those great titles of the past.

New Year's Eve Can Kill You runs until January 16th 2004. Bookings from the box office on 048-90381081