Civic Theatre, Tallaght

A man and a woman sit in a hospital waiting room talking apparently inconsequentially, he smoking, she not, taking plastic cups of soup or tea from a machine, playing a game with wooden blocks which she wins, and so on and so on, to no apparent purpose. Slowly it becomes apparent that they know, or have known each other very well. He is visiting Mary, who seems to be dying. She seems to have come to give him some kind of moral support. His wife is called Emer and is in London. Her husband is called Niall and she loves him.

It is all very low-key and such information as is provided comes slowly and tangentially. The playing by Fergal McElherron and Una Kavanagh is almost secretive, devoid of projection (even in the tiny space of the Civic's Loose End space) and, under Audrey Devereux's muted direction for Greenlight Productions, the audience must work hard to find out what is afoot. The words of Ioanna Anderson's new short play (90 minutes without an interval) are clear, but their meaning is not always apparent. This is a work that finally does not really reward the effort of concentration required of the audience.

Runs until February 24th (to book, phone 01-4627477).