Project Arts Centre, Dublin Previews Apr 8-9 Opens Apr 10-16 8.15pm 12/10 projectartscentre.ie 01-8819613

Much has been said about Ireland’s spectacular fall from prosperity, our damaged standing in Europe, and the expected emigration of 50,000 people this year alone. But so far only one person has compared this stark situation to something we can all understand: Nadine Coyle’s embattled position within Girls Aloud.

Such is the illuminating perspective of Shaun Dunne’s meditation on the pressure to get out and the stubborn desire to stay put. The fast- emerging playwright and performer here collaborates with young Dublin company Talking Shop Ensemble, a group that is playful, intelligent and – in that paradox of many Fringe theatre darlings – just as alternative as everyone else.

I Am a Homebird (It’s Very Hard) certainly draws from an aesthetic that is fast becoming a cliche (watch out for downstage microphones, choreographed dance sequences and 1990s club hits). But the project has grown through dry runs at Project Brand New and The Theatre Machine Turns You On to reach an encouraging balance between real-life subjects and brightly imaginative delivery.

Directed by Oonagh Murphy and performed by Dunne, Lisa Walsh and Ellen Quinn Banville, it’s a piece in tune with the dented optimism of a generation, whose determined Coylean metaphors can be both hilarious and affecting: “Fuck you, Cheryl. There will be another album.”

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Moment Civic Theatre, Dublin; Mermaid Arts Centre, Wicklow