Christmas is coming, but there's not much joy among men in this little number.

Publican Fred Ridgeway (Michael MacGraw) is in a mess.

Topping up his morning tea with booze, it's the Saturday before Christmas and the mainstay of his weekend and seasonal trade consists only of his regulars 29-year-old builder Billy (Lee Ross), who still lives with his mum, and grey-haired Guiseppe (Bernard Gallagher), who hasn't got over the death of his wife four years ago.

But even though Billy drinks like a fiend, he'll never be able to down enough to really help Fred out of his hole and every drop he does only takes him deeper into his own.

Meanwhile, poor Guiseppe is on doctor's orders not to drink but, out of habit, the Drambuies line up on the bar.

Glued together by alcohol and a shared inability to confront their fears, theirs is an uneasy kind of calm.

Then new man in town Charlie Anderson (Paul Ritter) stumbles in. He hasn't got over the fact his beloved wife was murdered eight months previously by intruders.

Like all the characters, he drinks to kill the pain but his is a more raw, confrontational angst.

"I am your guardian angel," he says, as his new drinking buddies spit, curse and kick when he throws the facts of their sad lives in their faces.

A brilliantly observed and often darkly funny piece, the world it depicts is entirely authentic.

The set is so pub-like, you barely need to go for a drink afterwards, the characters are immediately identifiable and the dialogue crackles.

The performances are also, without exception, superb.

There is, however, a lack of progression in the story that rankles.

It's true that part of the play's point is that none of these men move on but there's no convincing sense that any of them ever might do.

Exposing a certain lack of character depth, at times, the play can feel like a middle-class tourist trip of the East End.

Nevertheless, even with faults included, Christmas undoubtedly brings a breath of fresh air to the Brighton stage.

For tickets and further information, call 01273 709709.