The KerrymanGlass Mask Theatre, Dublin ★★★☆☆There is always a slight green-and-gold fear when a play leans heavily on the Kerry identity. The stereotypes arrive easily: everyone plays GAA, every boy is obsessed with his mother and everyone is related or has the same surname. I say this as somebody from the county.Thankfully, in The Kerryman, Eva O’Connor (no relation), writer of the acclaimed plays Mustard and Chicken, avoids using these stereotypes as a crutch for her comedy by doing something far more effective: throwing herself completely and unapologetically into the cliches.The stage, for the entirety of her new play, is a white screen with Cait (Lauren Larkin) and Eoin (Sean Fox) seated on two boxes before it. They meet at a bar, the Big Romance, on Parnell Street in Dublin. We hear the sound of glasses breaking, and loud music plays above us. Sparks eventually begin to fly between the two: the connection is slow and gradual and then all at once.Cait, who is from Dublin, is an artist – at least in theory – but when Eoin asks what she really does she admits that she actually knows him as she makes the coffee in the cafe below his office.In her spare time Cait eagerly waits for the collapse of capitalism. She also thinks that being engaged is a competitive sport.Eoin, the titular Kerryman, is a “bogger who insures insurance” and a self-proclaimed fish out of water who was determined to hate Dublin until recently. He is now adamant that he wants to actually live in the city, fully, and not just spend 20 years in an office there. He then plans to move home and run the family farm, which will be “enough” for him, he says.Throughout the play, perspective switches rapidly between the pair, telling us what each is thinking but never quite allowing us to name their feelings.Cait and Eoin also find it hard to put a name to their emotions: it’s an uneasy affair at best, rather like peering into a stained mirror with one eye closed, not really wanting to know what you may see. Both already realise that whatever these new feelings are will challenge everything they think they know about themselves.The play, which is directed by Rex Ryan, follows their relationship over the course of a year, all of their missed points and misunderstandings. Cait cannot understand why Eoin has three litres of milk in the fridge or why his family votes for the Healy-Raes. In turn, Eoin doesn’t quite get the “feminism thing”. The production is effective in its simplicity, O’Connor in complete control of what she has to say: genuine human connection can transcend the differences in people’s backgrounds, but both parties must be willing to fight to maintain that connection.O’Connor’s writing particularly shines in later scenes when Cait begins to experience health issues and is facing the possibility that she will not be able to have children – something she doesn’t want anyway.The true conflict arises when Eoin’s traditional, rural upbringing fully surfaces while Cait is in hospital. She tells him about the potential complications of her getting pregnant and Eoin begins to worry more for the future he imagines in Kerry, with a farm, a wife and kids, rather than Cait’s health. The Kerry cliches that Eoin encapsulates are no longer comic relief for either Cait or the audience, and now threaten to tear them apart.The Kerryman is at Glass Mask Theatre, Dublin, until Saturday, June 13th