Oxford Stage Company's Men Should Weep is hard going both for the talented cast and the audience.

Written in 1947 by Ena Lamont Stewart, the play is set in the Gorbals of Glasgow during the Thirties depression. It tells of one family's struggle through adversity and is written in a working-class Glasgwegian dialect.

That is what makes it hard for the audience and a lot of the humour was lost in unfamiliar words. Performances are powerful, especially from Jennifer Piercey as Granny and Pauline Turner as Maggie, the mother holding the family together.

Michael Turner's well-designed set is too big - it loses the claustrophobic atmosphere the family endured in what was at the time the worst slum area in Europe. The room covers the entire width of the stage so the cramped conditions where the young son was dying of TB never really come over.

Once you conquer the accent, the play is gripping so the rewritten ending put in by the author in 1982 comes as a big disappointment and doesn't ring true.

As a piece of social history, the play is worth seeing but be prepared to concentrate - hard.

Until Saturday, October 15. Call 01323 412000.