Dockyard.

*** Having packed audiences in for the past couple of months at the Club 21 building at Dockyard, J.B. Productions presented their third theatre entertainment at the weekend.

In an effort to inject some evening sparkle into the Dockyard complex, they have joined forces with the Frog and Onion, Pirate's Landing and Beethoven's restaurants to provide dinner/theatre packages. Staging two shows over one weekend each month, the new drama group is finding itself in the happy, if rather unusual position of having to turn customers away from this 100-seater theatre venue.

Following on the popular and well-tested "Shirley Valentine'' (a one-hander starring Carol Birch who, along with husband Ian, is a founding director of the new venture) and an apparently uproarious Monty Python-type revue, "Wrong For Each Other'' is billed as a "romantic comedy'' by Canadian Norm Foster.

There are certainly plenty of laughs -- even if most of them are of the wry variety -- in this wittily written script. The twist in the story is a thread, not so much of sadness, but of that numbing impasse when people can no longer communicate. With highly strung Nora revealing early on in the proceedings that her father plays "in the symphony'' (mother is long since dead) and Rudy displaying a humbler but cheerier disposition as the son of fruit and veg vendors in the local market, the writing is, as you might say, clearly on the wall.

In a marathon duologue which evolves from their chance meeting in a restaurant, this couple, ill-matched by class as well as personality, recount through a series of flashbacks, the chequered story of their doomed relationship.

Director Carol Birch, who presumably chose the play partly for its suitability for a small setting, has cleverly used what space she does have to maintain a sense of momentum and highly-charged emotion. She has also worked closely with the gifted Richard Klesniks who has produced a severely minimalist set -- table, chairs and sofa swathed in white drapery casting a Miss Haversham-like aura over this bitter-sweet tale of broken promises and unfulfilled dreams.

Helen Coffey, in the flush of her continuing success in Noel Coward's "Private Lives'' for the Jabulani Company, and newcomer Nick Moore, both rise effortlessly to the occasion in this demandingly verbal tour de force. This play is very densely written and they must be congratulated on their fluency, stamina and obvious stage rapport.

Ms Coffey only burst upon the local theatre scene some five years ago, but her talent is such that she has already gained the stature of "veteran'', an actress who can, and does, tackle just about any role (even singing, as in Sondheim's "A Little Night Music''). Possessor of a resonant speaking voice, and blessed with a natural sense of timing and movement, she invests this role with a touch of pathos as well as humour.

Ironically enough, "Wrong For Each Other'', whose entire moral theme lies in its title, re-works the same subject as "Private Lives''. Norm Foster, who undeniably has "a way with words'' but uses rather too many of them to drive his point home, should take a look at Maestro Coward, whose crackling wit and verbal genius shines ever more brightly when exhibited alongside this more pedestrian version.

For Nick Moore, who apparently has had virtually no acting experience, his portrayal is indeed an accomplishment. He seems miraculously at ease and never allows the pulse to flag as he charges, thoroughly puzzled in an ingenuous sort of way, through the peaks and vales of this tempestuous love affair. For a beginner, this is a spectacular beginning.

All in all, this is a thoroughly entertaining play and the idea of driving (or boating out) to the West End for a leisurely dinner beforehand, is already proving to be a popular concept. Book now for next month's offering which is another comedy -- Willie Russell's "One For The Road'', presented on July 24 and 25.

PATRICIA CALNAN THEATRE THR