The Unfringed 2002 Festival is offering a range of works to audiences in Limerick. Helen Meany joined an enthusiastic public at the Belltable

A flame-thrower, a Lambeg drum and an enthusiastic bunch of cross-dressing mummers heralded the opening of the Unfringed Festival on Thursday night. And if you thought that it would take more than that to winkle people from their sofas on a January evening, you'd be mistaken: there was a full house for the opening of Grand by Max Hafler.

This new play from Yew Tree Theatre Company in Ballina was the first show in the week-long mini-festival held annually at the Belltable Arts Centre.

Set in contemporary Ireland, in a village on the outskirts of Galway, Hafler's two-hander opens confidently, but rapidly begins to lose its way. When a married woman, Marie (Billie Traynor), receives amorous letters from the local bank manager, her life is thrown into confusion. When the letters take a sexually aggressive tone, she becomes scared and offended. The postman who delivers them (Eamon Rohan) functions as narrrator/chorus who introduces the village and its characters to us and reveals that other people are also receiving threatening letters. The combination of his narration, which refers to events in the past, and Marie's enactment of these events is awkward; his role as narrator makes it impossible for him to participate fully in the drama, and the effect is static.

Despite two fine performances, the play simply doesn't work. It is awkwardly structured and slow to unfold and needed a few more drafts and much closer attention from its director, John Breen.

Grand was succeeded last night by an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, directed by Louise Drumm in Common Currency's stark production, which was first seen at the Dublin Fringe Festival in October. (Also tonight, 8 p.m.). The Russian company, Do Teatr, a bright light on the Edinburgh Fringe last year, brings a dance-theatre show, Upside Down (Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.).

In the foyer of the Belltable, there is a fascinating exhibition of work by the Northern artist Victor Sloan (Selected Works 1980-2000). His hand-tinted and manipulated photographic images take an oblique, multi-layered view of life in Northern Ireland over two decades, formally lying somewhere between photography and painting. A series of images of a visiting circus is particularly haunting. (Continues until February 15th.)

On Friday morning, children from two Limerick gaelscoileanna stamped their feet and gasped as they watched Amharclann Síog's delicate staging of Dhá Chluas Capaill Ar Labhrás Loinsigh. The fable of the king with the ass's ears was beautifully rendered with finger puppets, string puppets and the imaginative use of swathes of silk which billowed and folded into landscapes and characters. The central prop, a huge hammock, was transformed into a guillotine and later became the strings of the harp that sang out Labhrás's terrible secret. It was a treat to see such magical stagecraft.

The festival's children's programme also included Púca Puppets, a double-bill from German company Theater Triebwerk and a screening of The Testimony of Taliesen Jones on Sunday. For Liz Culloty, director of Unfringed and of the Belltable, bringing young people into the arts centre during the day is crucial. "The festival aims to appeal to people who might not usually attend theatre but who are open to the idea of a Fringe. The audience is growing steadily - among foreign workers and students, especially. Next year we're hoping to get sponsorhip."

On a budget of €20,000, what can be achieved is necessarily modest. With only one venue, the Belltable, openings have to be staggered, and it's hard to create the kind of festival buzz that derives from the sense that there's an array of shows running simultaneously around the city. "I'd love to be able to expand into other venues," Culloty says. "But it's a question of finances."

Even if money were flowing, however, there is a dearth of performance venues in Limerick. The Belltable itself is under pressure, as it is a resource organisation housing a number of other arts companies, and is growing out of its rented O'Connell Street premises. Its landlord, Sarsfield Credit Union, is now seeking a commercial rent.

A campaign is currently underway, led by Limerick Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce, to build a multi-arts centre on Arthur's Quay. "We'd like to see an ambitious, landmark building for the city," says Culloty, "and we're hoping to engage all the arts organisations in the city to support the proposal.

"There's a problem with the visibility of the arts in Limerick, and this is the real challenge for us all. We need to raise our profile, to make ourselves known as part of the life of the city and to create opportunities for interaction with the public. Unfringed is part of that."

Unfringed Festival 2000 continues until February 7th. Booking at: 061-319866 and www.unfringed02belltable.info