This other city

The Market Place Theatre and Arts Centre, Armagh May 22; Riverside Theatre, Derry May 23; Garage Theatre, Monaghan May 26; The Alley Theatre, Tyrone May 28

If conflict is the soul of drama, where does that leave Northern Ireland? One of the stranger terms to have crept into discussion in Northern Irish theatre is the phrase “post-conflict society”, first voiced quietly after ceasefires and power-sharing agreements, but now mentioned with the sombre sigh of wishful thinking.

Daragh Carville’s new play for Tinderbox theatre company, in which surface tranquillity, prosperity and morality are gradually peeled away to reveal something far more tense beneath, may provide a new narrative to suit the times.

Tinderbox, which has long nurtured new Irish writing, has a deep association with Carville, a screenwriter and a playwright who has rarely met a societal metaphor he didn't like: an earlier play saw four generations of the same family continue their squabbles from the grave. Reviewed here with cautious approval, This Other Citysees a living family undone by deadly secrets and human trafficking. That may be the dramatist's prerogative: to understand that the better things get, the worse they must be.

Can’T See ThaT? CaTch This

Affluence The Playhouse, Derry