When this four-hander played in Edinburgh last year, my negative reaction saw me swimming upstream against an onrushing tide of plaudits.

Although Enda Walsh’s writing seems a little more humane this time around, I still found myself longing for the last waltz to be called and the ballroom closed up once more.

Walsh’s writing is punishingly stylised, which means that sisters Breda, Clara and Ada, as well as visiting nervy fishmonger Patsy, talk at, rather than to, each other over the institution-coloured set.

Endless lengthy monologues leave us gagging for a bit of old-fashioned repartee, or at least for someone to give someone else a straight answer as regards the making of a cup of tea.

That the drama’s surreal-lite form hangs so heavy is a pity, as Walsh’s central image is an arresting and poignant one.

Decades ago, in this backwater Irish village, the eponymous pleasure palace, complete with the “Roller Royle” and his show band, seemed to herald for older sisters Breda and Clara the start of a wonderful new life full of light, love and opportunity.

But the flame of hope was instantly snuffed out, leaving these agoraphobic women with nothing to do but dress in the glad rags of a bygone time and relive missed chances.

The cast work hard under Walsh’s own studiedly self-conscious direction, maximising the impact of the repeated turns of phrase.

Catherine Walsh’s Ada startles us each time with “turning fish into numbers”, the description of her accounting job at the local fish-canning factory.

Mikel Murfi as Patsy has the biggest character arc to trace, and for a brief moment it seems that, at the longest of lasts, a day might finally be seized.
Until 29 March (020 8237 1111, www.riversidestudios.co.uk).