Smock Alley Theatre **

SEVEN MEMBERS of a writers’ group gather for a weekly meeting, and, having grown weary of the same hackneyed tripe that is trotted out each week, they turn to personal experience for new material. It is not long before the knives are out and the seven start to attack each other on the page, while trying to deal with their own frustrations and limitations.

The premise of this play has the potential to create a punchy, explosive and caustic production, but the script struggles under the weight of its own ideas.

The idea is sound: seven different stories wound around the narrative device of the writing group. This, though, is an overly long play that comes across like prose being read off the page, and the plot never establishes itself to full coherence.

Eileen Slevin provides comic relief as a cardigan-clad, romance-obsessed character who loves a few “shteamy” scenes, but it’s not enough wit to relieve a production that should deliver more.

Runs until Friday