THE English reviews of Marina Carr's The Mai, which opened last week at the Tricycle in London, make one wonder about critics. They saw Portia Coughlan first, and, overall, think The Mai is a piece of juvenilia by comparison. We saw The Mai first, and mostly thought Portia Coughlan revisited the same ground less successfully.

Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire, at the Royal Court, is causing the English critics to knit their brows, and not surprisingly, given its rich, colloquial Irishness. Brid Brennan, Ruth McCabe and particularly Rosaleen Linehan (as Mommo) are praised: "Ms Linehan's performance is a tour deforce, though not one that will necessarily be all that intelligible at first to English ears," writes Paul Taylor in the London Independent.