Ulster American

Riverside Studios

★★★★★

Every now and then a play comes along that is in no way perfect, yet is exactly want you want. This one by David Ireland — an Edinburgh Festival hit from 2018 — is very funny, though I have seen funnier. It is also cuttingly political, though hardly

revelatory.

And although this three-hander is very well acted it is difficult to see any of its stars — Hollywood’s Woody Harrelsonand Andy Serkis, and Louisa Harland, who will soon be joining Brian Cox in a forthcoming production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night — scooping awards.

The evening doesn’t quite have the serious heft awards judges tend to like to be associated with, but more fool them.

The evening is an immense amount of fun. The action — all 90 uninterrupted minutes of it — is set in the London flat of theatre

director Leigh Carver (Serkis).

He and the Hollywood star of his latest production (Harrelson) are discussing the play that begins rehearsals the following morning. Written by Ulster playwright Ruth (Harland), it is steeped in the culture of Northern Ireland as opposed to the rest

of the island, a distinction that Harrelson’s American star has missed.

When he agreed to do it he thought he was starring in a work that spoke to his anti-British Irish-Catholic roots.

By the time Ruth arrives gaping culture gaps have already emerged.

Harrelson’s Jay (a performance for which the Cheers and Natural Born Killers star has said he partly models on himself) is a teetotal, meditating, Oscar winner who plays lip service to the gender-aware culture of our post- #MeToo world, yet is still capable of asking his host: “If you had to rape someone, who would it be?”

When Ruth arrives yet more fissures appear, most interestingly between Serkis’s archetypal theatrical lefty and Ruth, who he insists on describing as Irish even though she is British.

To reveal how each corner of this triangle becomes more antagonistic to the two would spoil the gob-smacking climax.

You could pick holes.

Would a leading theatre director really mistake James Baldwin for Alex? But better to just cling on to this rollercoaster and enjoy the ride.