In Do You Read Me?, Shaun Dunne's light-hearted meditation on life's bigger questions, the writer and performer uses an unusual visit to a psychic named Monty as springboard to investigate the residues of religious belief in an Ireland weaning itself off Catholicism. Dunne seems troubled to inhabit a country where 'no one believes in anything'. As Dunne ponders a psychic epiphany, he, Lisa Walsh and Siobhan Cullen appear on stage throughout Do You Read Me? to recreate everything from the destruction of a communion dress to the moment of dying.

While the script tends to plod, Talking Shop Ensemble's production is always assured. Zia Holly's lighting design depicts a tug-of-war between darkness and light, while Oonagh Murphy's direction sees the theatrical potential of the Boys’ School fully maximised.  Dunne is an earnest comic performer and the scene where he and Walsh discuss the music at their funeral and the feeling of being pulled towards heaven is strangely life-affirming. In the end though, Dunne offers nothing different to believe in and the play's last action – Dunne cycling out of the theatre – can either be read as a celebration of the ordinary or a flight of escape from a vexing topic.

Donald Mahoney