FROM the pen of Martin McDonagh comes another thick slice of Irish whimsey, with an amusing turn of phrase, various eccentric characters and a downtrodden, fatalistic approach to life that people seem to find amusing.

The play is mostly set in Kate (Jo Barnard) and Eileen (Beverly Siddle)'s little shop, that seems to sell nothing but tinned peas and a small selection of sweets.

Here we meet Johnnypateenmike (Colin Pritchard), who barters items of local gossip for groceries, widowed boatman Babbybobby Bennet (Andrew McGuirk Smith, on debut), tough girl Slippy Helen (Issy Mitchell), her brother Bartley (another debutant, Herbie Curran) a local simpleton, and his friend, the eponymous 'cripple', Billy (Tim Syed), orphaned in mysterious circumstances, who, having learnt that a crew is coming to make a film in their area, dreams of escaping and having a go at acting in Hollywood, which he attempts to do through a rather mean trick.

Director Clair Whitaker's cast includes a fine double act from Barnard and Siddle, Pritchard's egotistical gossip, Mitchell's admirably irreligious egg lobber, Smith's tough but sensitive boatman, Curran's maddeningly patient sweet selector and a lovely cameo from Meriel Shepherd as Johnnypateenmike's unrepentantly alchoholic mother, but Syed holds the show together with a lot of charm and, finally, a tiny spark of hopefulness.

Ham Quentin