The edge of adulthood

Three school friends in a town on the west coast of Ireland spend their spare time diving off low cliffs into the Atlantic. They are on another brink, too: facing the uncertain leap into adulthood, dreaming of escape from their provincial lives.

Award-winning Irish playwright Ursula Rani Sarma paints a small but finely detailed canvas of small-town youth around this central image. Garrulous, foolish Joe (Kevin O'Leary) wants an alternative to his violent father; tomboy Danny (Corinna Cunningham) wants to travel to Greece. Leader of this nervy trio, and object of Danny's affections, is Des (Aidan O'Hare), aged prematurely by the death of his mother.

Sarma allows her characters too much time talking directly to the audience and takes a while to find her story. Though Joss Bennathan has directed a smooth, well-paced production, Blue does sometimes slip into shouty, breathless intensity.

Cunningham is excellent as the petulant Danny, nursing her quiet longing and O'Hare manages to be both introverted and authoritative as Des. Blue is a modest play, but vividly and nimbly written, taking us from the slow-motion state of an epileptic fit, through an amateurish drug deal and back to the blue abyss of the Atlantic where we began.