Stand-up comedy meets aural autopsy in Ronan Leonard's too long but often funny dissection of the Irish obsession with World Cup songs. Slicing up eight of the 27 tracks penned in support of the boys in green, for contests in 1990 and 1994, it captures the mania and confusion it created in his then ten-year-old world, when he took the delusion expressed by the songwriters at face value. Looking back from his 2012 vantage point, he comically exposes the ludicrous fallacies, inaccuracies and recurring preoccupations in the songs, while providing us with smaller glimpses of his own world.

It’s a terrific concept, mortifying and charming us with thoughts of our former selves. But it is in desperate need of a director and a dramaturg. Large chunks of the show ramble on without satisfactory conclusion - most notably a tale about Paul McGrath rapping. The decision not to use any visual aids, bar the iPad from which he reads the lyrics, can result in punchlines being lost as the audience get bogged down in his rambling, verbal delivery. It would benefit greatly from separating the wheat from the chaff, which in turn would give Leonard more space to contextualise the tale by providing us with more of his own narrative… or the Nation's.

Star rating: ★★★