Stargazers: snap out of it. Edwina Casey’s Fringe debut brings to light the darkness of Dublin’s financial depression and follows four pin-up histories of its dream-deluded victims.

In a world where anything was possible, the cream of next generation’s crop was tipped for a fruitful future: opera singers, football players, power ninjas and tooth fairies. But the bang of burst balloons rings true in the aftermath of merriment and, one by one, the characters read the truth from a page into the microphone down stage. Failed businesses, failed marriages, family feuds and dole dependency - our nation’s nose is pressed firm to the gutter and asked the question why. A synchronized dance routine to Abba’s ‘Money Money Money’ makes for one somewhat lengthy answer, but when the dialogue reduces itself to mere ‘NamaNamaNama,’ a more explicit and suitably incomprehensible response to the question is heard.

Case Study’s production delivers its namesake on the state of things with unassuming performances from Jack Hickey, Jane Myers, Keith Hanna and Camille Ross. The message here is disturbingly real: we are all in the gutter, and there’s no point looking at the stars.