Fergie's upstairs space, with its rickety chairs, dark walls and ever-present bar cacophony (both aural and olfactory) wafting from below, proves ideal for the right sort of play, so much so that one wishes Collins' script fit better.

Matt Pfeiffer plays the scruffy title character (pronounced "tie" plus a hard "g"), with a convincing brogue. Pfeiffer's a likable actor capping a great season (the Walnut's Lobby Hero, InterAct's Reinventing Eden and direction of The Foocy for Lantern and Theatre Exile's Rounding Third) with a superb performance as a hapless student in a tiny Irish town.

Tadhg addresses us directly, but since Collins doesn't place him with us in the bar, Inis Nua's venue choice violates the form's primary conceit that the play is a one-sided, alcohol-fueled conversation. Once Tadhg takes us to the story's humorous beginnings—momentary celebrity following some accidental heroism and an encounter with blue-eyed, "punky but not a Goth" French girl Helene (who Pfeiffer voices with French accent synthesized through his brogue)—Collins' script and the environs match perfectly, despite some off-putting light changes in Saturday's preview performance.

Pfeiffer and director Tom Reing make Tadgh's teenage inarticulateness speaks volumes—why waste words when thrusting two raised middle fingers is so eloquent?—and we're soon absorbed in his peculiar logic as he ditches final exams to follow the mythical Helene to Paris, where tiny miracles (a free soda, unexpected refuge) struggle against brutal realities (the thievery, violence and substance abuse of society's dregs) for his innocent soul.

Where Tadgh washes up—without Helene, too proud and too ashamed to call his father for rescue—can't help but disappoint after Pfeiffer's winning performance, and leaves us wondering what Collins wants to say. Tadgh foolishly pursues a dream, and the spanking life gives him feels all too realistic—but what does it mean, for him and for us?

Inis Nua (roughly "New Island" in Gaelic) aims to produce contemporary plays from Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England (don't dare say "British Isles"). Tadhg Stray was well-received in the 2005 Fringe Festival, as was A Play on Two Chairs in 2004, and this year's Welsh play, Crazy Gary's Mobile Disco, should be great fun.

TADHG STRAY WANDERED IN

Through June 30, Inis Nua Theatre Company at Fergie's Pub, 1214 Sansom St.,267-474-8077