Dee and Aidan and their two young sons have moved into the back rooms of their failing shop in a dwindling Irish village in the middle of the recession, in order to let out their house for extra money. Their problems are summed up by the town gossip, miser and all-round "not so nice person" Gertie, played with splendid grumbling verve by Penny Tuerk, when she says, "Tesco's is cheaper and then there's the Aldi on the outskirts of town". Even the lotto tickets and newspapers which have to sell for the same price are worth getting in Tesco's for the club card points!

James Killeen as world-weary Aidan batted just the correct amount of eyelid for us to know something but not what, was up when he checked Gertie's ticket. We soon found out of course that it was a winning ticket of two hundred and fifty thousand Euros but he kept this from her and us, throwing it out but dismayed when she wanted to keep it just for her records.

All of the performances and the pace of the production were spot on. Ruth Anthony as Dee was perfect for me as the once lusty and business-minded woman who felt she had to somehow make her husband wake up and see reality. It was also believable to me that years before that she had been engaged to the almost child-like J.P. played with courage and bravado by Sean McMullen, before ditching him for his sensible best friend Aidan and yet all three remaining best friends. One of the small moments that stood out for me was when Dee came up with another, better plan and unnoticed by Aiden, J.P. quietly says (at her if not actually to her) "I love you." The mixture of pride, adoration and wistful sadness, which the actor showed without either Dee or Aidan seeing, was just lovely.

Another highlight showcasing the ensemble work of the three main actors was when Dee, in order to get a message to his mother resorts to answering the questions of Gertie's "pervert" son (who Gertie insists went to court and paid a fine for perversion, as a favour to the local magistrate just to make the administration simpler). We don't hear the questions but we know them full well by her reactions, her pauses and her answers. The teamwork between the three as Aiden tried to rip the phone from his wife's hand, while she and JP hold him back, as she continues the conversation was hysterically funny and admirable.

First time Tower director Lynn Facey cleverly created several "dumb-shows" under music which pushed the story on further than even the script – as far as I am aware – would have taken us, filling in small gaps and keeping us intrigued while small scene changes were done, such as the phone call to J.P. for assistance and the breaking up of a fight between the two men by Dee. The rest of the play revolves around J.P.'s conviction that they have to mug Gertie to get the ticket back and claim the money for themselves.

However, the real problem for me was the actual script. It was humorous in places, extremely funny in others but quite black and also bittersweet throughout. It left me feeling the writer didn't really know which he wanted the play to be. One minute it is being very serious about the problems of "this generation wanting everything and not appreciating money" and as Aiden bites back to Gertie; "how is it our fault when it was your generation that taught us and forced us to own our own homes and not be like you?" And the next minute it is descending into actual farce with J.P. ending the play with his shirt off and a pair of tights on his head with the legs dangling down! In the gentler comedic sections, I think the audience I was with certainly, would have laughed more but we weren't always certain we were supposed to.

I can see why it is so successful in the writer's native Ireland, as I think it requires an Irish sensibility to fully understand and appreciate it. I know some members of the audience told me later, that they found it quite disconcerting to have the elderly character of Gertie swearing so much but I know from watching a lot of Irish plays that such swearing is quite common for all ages in rural Ireland. But again, the writer has to decide if he is writing for an Irish or an international audience. Although I felt later in thinking about this conundrum, that Penny Tuerk, for all her despicableness as Gertie, was perhaps still a little too refined to make the swearing work well for a UK audience.

One hole in the plot-line which bothered me even at the time (which is never a good sign!), was that Dee takes her sons to school in the morning at the beginning of the play and yet later we are told it is now 6pm when Dee takes Gertie for a tour of the new living quarters. However, no one mentioned where the boys were and there was certainly no discussion of who should collect them from school amongst all of the other shenanigans!

One other problem for me was that although as I have stated, the acting and direction was extremely good, I found it occasionally difficult - especially in the beginning - to fully understand the mostly Irish cast. I felt they needed to slow down and enunciate a little more clearly for a non-Irish ear to tune into them at least to begin with. In fact the only member of the cast I had absolutely no problems understanding was the only non-Irish person "putting on" an Irish accent, which was Penny Tuerk as Gertie.

I must now speak up for the set! Phil Ley did an extraordinary job in creating a worn down little shop and the street behind, right down to the street sign, on the Bridewell Stage. It appeared cramped with all of its fruit and veg and groceries, yet still sparse with room to move.

Again, well done to Lynn Facey and her cast and crew for a slick and enjoyable production, even if the script itself was a little uneven in places.