Two lads meet by a football pitch in East Belfast after a mix-up over their shoes. Robbie has been playing football there for years; it’s his happy place, but he hears the rumours that it is going to become a Gaelic football pitch. Deren would dearly love that to happen so he can play the sport he loves on a pitch close to home. Into the mix comes Mel, Robbie’s younger sister, who quite fancies giving up football with Robbie to take up Gaelic.

The pitch is the perfect metaphor for what is happening in the wider country. Set in a Northern Ireland heading for an independence referendum, Nationalists anticipate feeling at home in a united Ireland, whereas Unionists fear marginalisation in a country being taken out from under them. Over the course of a few years the boys’ tentative friendship is strained by tensions over the future of the pitch and the future of the country, yet they still find plenty in common – their love of sport and a shared hatred of Liverpool FC.

This cast has been together over several iterations of the play’s performance history, and it shows. Jake Douglas and James Grimm as Deren and Robbie bounce off each other as they switch between infectious boyish enthusiasm, bonding over kicking a ball around, and macho bravado as one of the issues dividing them rears its head. Meanwhile, Dión Di Maio as Mel is a livewire presence and the soul of the play. Initially desperate to get away from what she describes as a shit-hole, she grows in optimism about the future and the new opportunities it affords, her easy friendship with Deren illustrating how connections can be made across divides.

The play has a vibrancy and physicality to it: balls are flying around the tiny stage without ever risking the audience’s safety, and the energy-filled transitions set the mood for the next scene. The script by Philip Catherwood is both thoughtful and witty. There is much laughter as he pulls off the trick of getting authentic specifics of life in Ireland, like Northern Tayto crisps versus Southern Tayto crisps, to create universal resonances.

The Pitch is an excellent new play: funny, touching and driven by great performances. In the real world, many people on all sides fear a future referendum, the changes it could herald and the potential for violence. This play is profoundly optimistic about people’s ability to make connections, and the future of the Northern Ireland. It’s a country that could do with a bit of optimism.