Magpie Theatre Company's production of Diptych, written and directed by Magpie founder-member Louise Lowe, charts the inevitable decline of Joe Burke (Darren Walsh) from healthy dreamer to heroin casualty. Joe leaves work at a cardboard factory because he aspires to more, but he is quickly brought up short by the reality of unemployment. His wife, Laura (Louise Lowe), is supportive, claiming she loves him because he's different from all the other men, but she dreams of escape to normal domestic bliss.

Joe tries heroin in his search for an escape and soon he is selling anything left in the house to pay for his habit. Helped by two old friends, Freddie (John Smith) and Rachel (Robbie Mori), Laura manages to get him off heroin and on to methadone. However, when the "buzzing" in his head becomes too much, Joe fatally shoots up again, in a toe-curling scene made even more effective by being the only one in which props are employed.

Much of the action takes the form of flashbacks from the present, where Joe is in a kind of purgatory watching the mess he's made of his life. The play is also bookended by mime pieces, which act like a Greek chorus obliquely spelling out the motivations and consequences of the action on stage. These slow-motion vignettes acted out by all four members of the cast are possibly the strongest part of the play, helped along by Paul Winters's stark and sometimes startlinglighting against Gillian Ni Chaiside's bleak set.

Darren Walsh gives a very physical and well-judged performance as Joe and Louise Lowe brings just the right shade of steely pathos to the role of Laura.

Continues until June 20th. To book, phone: 01-6713387