This new play, written and directed by Conor Mcpherson, is set in a trash filled room of an odd job man Tommy in Dublin. Tommy lives with his uncle Maurice and occasionally, Tommy’s workmate stays over. One day, Tommy ran into damsel in distress Aimee who is of questionable intent and background and good natured Tommy let her stays and the story charts the events of the following few days. It is a play fundamentally about the decency of people and the interdependence of seemingly unsuitable people one is stuck with. There is real warmth and love under all the harder, macho stand of the characters. Ciarán Hinds, channelling the inner “dude”, is outstanding as Tommy, showing heartbreaking and genuine kindness. Jim Norton as hard edged Maurice can certainly act drunk convincingly but has a winning softer and genial side. The lovely and enveloping sound track during scene changes set the mood perfectly and alleviates the large number of scenes in a relatively short run time of one hour 45 minutes. It is a slow start to the play setting out the characters and the somewhat excessive but thoroughly menacing violence seems unnecessary. There is a real lyrical end to the play and the somewhat cryptic line about heaven makes one ponders the reality of the final scenes.
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