Cockroach Poetry - Bewley's Cafe Theatre

`There's tragic tragic and there's tragic bankable." For a fleeting moment it looks as if the circumstances of a failed actor (Paul Kennedy) might be "tragic bankable", but it's not to be. This, like the series of nightmarish telephone conversations he has with his alcoholic mother (Danna Davis) and born-again gay father (Patrick Byrnes), is just part of one lurid heroin trip. Barry McKinley's new 45-minute play, set in New York, is full of sharp one-liners, comic absurdities and sitcom-style farce. Danna Davis is excellent, doubling as the waspish mother and a vacuous New-Age drug dealer's assistant; of the three, her accent is the most consistent. Director Patrick David Nolan needs to sharpen up the comic timing, curb the tendency to shriek, and give more definition to the scene endings, which tend to peter out. Luckily, McKinley's script saves the day.

- Helen Meany

1.05 p.m. until Saturday

Marsyas The Hippest Satyr - Andrew's Lane Theatre

Accustomed as we are to plays with acts, actors and acting, Roger Gregg's raucous satyr play comes as something of a shock. Gregg, dressed in tails, fronts a line-up more traditional to a rock band than to straight theatre - Peter O'Kennedy on percussion, Molly Magahy on keyboards and Giordai Ua Laoghaire on guitar. With the audience seated around cabaret-style tables, Gregg heads full tilt into the story of Marsyas, a terribly mundane satyr who has the misfortune to find a cursed horn discarded by the goddess Athena. The arrival of Apollo - "supremely flipped and divinely tripped" - and his challenge of musical war brings poor Marsyas to bursting point.

This is good-natured, playful theatre with more brio than depth, and perhaps a little over-extended in this form. Gregg is a natural performer, skittering round the stage like a stiff-limbed marionette while the musicians, particularly Ua Laoghaire, coax an astonishing range of sounds and sound effects from their instruments.

- Louise East

10.30 p.m. until Saturday

Endgame - The Crypt, Dublin Castle

The Bear Bones Theatre Company captures beautifully the pain and humour of Beckett's Endgame. The simplicity of the staging - two rubbish bins, two windows, Hamm, a blind cripple in an armchair on casters, and his servant, the punctilious Clov, carrying out his master's orders - makes the scene immediately absorbing. It's about ending something and everything, and waiting for death - the death of these characters and of the universe.

Erich J. Renner is an excellent Hamm, depicting the character's incompetence credibly but holding back on his barbarous side somewhat. His bickering with Clov is meticulously paced by Nevan Finegan's careful direction. Glenn Montgomery delivers Clov's final speech exquisitely.

Nagg's forlorn face and melancholy eyes, peering from the bin, are fascinating, adding pathos to Bart Ryan's poignant portrayal. Nagg epitomises the tragedy of this comedy; he makes us laugh yet at the same time desperately sad. A touching production.

- Simon Carswell

8 p.m. until Saturday

Often I Find That I Am Naked

From Australia comes this story of a girl who equates sex with love, making herself quite ridiculous. She entertains her friends with tales of her misadventures, so they invite her to parties to meet nice men. She does, but the relationships are never lasting.

For some 75 minutes, we follow her odyssey. A dog ravishes her leg at a party. A newspaper ad brings her a forensic pathologist whose job is dead bodies - and he has stuff under his nails. Her alcohol-driven antics are a hoot, and always a preliminary to more love-sex. And her career soars even as her real quest becomes ever more futile.

Jacqueline Linke is persuasive as the girl, and Keith Agius is versatile as the men - and the dog - in her life. The comic script is unrestrainedly saucy, but only those who have led a very sheltered life will be surprised. It's slight, but very funny.

- Gerry Colgan

8 p.m. until October 16th