Brian Friel's play, Philadelphia, Here I Come! , is now older than that "medieval mauscript" was to young Gar. Like that newspaper, its value is chiefly a historical one. It is badly dated and largely tedious. Nobody under, say, 35, who wasn't already inured to it from the Leaving Cert, could listen to Gar relishing his private nickname for his father, "Screwballs", and not wince.

Similarly with the constant refrain of "It is now 16 or 17 years since the Queen of France. . .". The play is mired by flashbacks and exposition; characters consistently tell us more than we need to know; everything is made tediously explicit. Two scenes in particular jar: the hoary old cliche of reading a letter aloud; and the visit of Gar's relatives from the US, who appear as little more than a cipher for the vulgarity of wealth.

The split of Gar Public from Gar Private, brashly experimental in its day, now seems like little more than a device to allow Friel spell everything out. Though Sean Stewart and Marty Rea present a finely tuned double-act, the incessant banter between Public and Private is now more reminiscent of something on the Ryan Tubridy show than of a split between ego and id.

Alan Stanford's production for Second Age, aimed at school audiences, is uninspired but faithful. He marshals his cast well around Eileen Diss's literal set. Though the company is uneven, with some responding to the dated dialogue by hamming their performances, Aine Ni Mhuiri, Enda Oates and Andrew Adamson are particularly good.

There are strengths to the play, but its chief strength for students is now its weakness as drama: its conflicts are so glaringly obvious as to come with exam questions inbuilt: public and private; children and parents; poverty and wealth, etc. Today's Ireland is a restless place that couldn't give a curse about the past; this play is so firmly rooted at one point in that past that it has become an anachronism. Discuss.

PERMANENTmark it into your diary - now. Sunday 11 November.

9pm Phantom 105.2 It's the first broadcast date in Ireland of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour, the radio show started by the music icon back in May 2006 on XM Satellite Radio, the leading satellite service in the States. The Irish rights to the show have been bought by Phantom 105.2, with sponsorship from Heinken Music, to celebrate the hugely successful rock station's first year on the air.

The mix of music is handselected by Dylan, and the show's interviews with other musicians as well as the star's thoughts on music and life have become essential listening in the States.

Dylan chooses a theme for each show . . . anything from hair, to baseball or just the weather . . .

and the mellowest voice on air takes you through the subject.

The show is already a download favourite but now that Phantom have bought the rights, Sunday nights will be all about Bob.