It is the May 7th, 1901, just before dawn, and the Stage Manager is telling us what is like in Grovers Corners; a nice town. The population is about 2,600, mostly Protestants; a relative handful of Catholics live across the tracks and there is an area called Polishtown, but we won't talk about those.

There is no scenery to speak of. The SM can paint it for us in words, and he chooses the Gibbs and Webb families as exemplars for his story. Young George and Emily are falling for each other, and will on go to marry. This is the best part of the play, a heart-warming love story that is all the more poignant when she dies in childbirth.

Then to the final act, set in the hills above the town where the dead sit in serried ranks waiting to be absorbed into some vague eternity. They pity those they have left behind in a world of worry and darkness, and their love for them slowly dissipates. If this be the author's version of nirvana, his thoughts are, at least for this party-pooping reviewer, bad karma, pretentious and trite. The SM hints of changes to come, of a Grovers Corners that will have lost its innocence - and it has a lot to lose. There is apparently no crime, and the town's one bucolic policeman has two drunks to cope with and children to control. It is idyllic to the point of turn-off, leading finally to scepticism.

Some delightful acting enlivens the main roles, notably in Liam O'Brien's George and Anna Olson's Emily. As their parents, Gary Helzier, Helena Enright, Cormac Costello and Gene Rooney are excellent, and Jim Queally's SM has the touch of the maestro. Their performances help to keep at bay a sense that Thornton Wilder's play is out of its time, and to provide at least for an enjoyable evening.

Runs to November 24th;For bookings telephone 061-319866