Reviews

Our Few and Evil Days by Mark O'Rowe

Reviewed by Emilie Pine on 06 October 2014 Sep 26 - Oct 25 in Abbey Theatre

It sounds unlikely; more than unlikely, downright unbelievable. Margaret says it’s ‘crazy’. Three men are invited into a family home, two are thrown out, one remains. All of the men are looking for love, and look to the women of the house to grant it to them, beginning with a request...

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Be Infants in Evil by Brian Martin

Reviewed by Chris McCormack on 16 July 2014 Jul 10-26 in Mick Lally Theatre

For his professional debut, playwright Brian Martin chose a subject that wasn’t easy. At its most provocative it might shed some light: what do we really know about paedophilia? While definitions vary between medical disorder, sociopathic condition and sexual orientation, debates over their applicability...

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Ballyturk by Enda Walsh

Reviewed by Matthew Harrison on 14 July 2014 July 10-27 in Black Box Theatre, Galway

Playwright and director Enda Walsh must have staggering self-confidence: no topic is too chunky to chew over for the ninety minutes of what he defines as the ‘kinetically crazy theatre’ of Ballyturk, his latest dramatic extravaganza. What is the meaning of time, mortality, innocence, death,...

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Philadelphia, Here I Come! by Brian Friel

Reviewed by Terence Blain on 06 February 2014 6 February – 8 March 2014 in the Lyric Theatre, Belfast

It’s fifty years since Philadelphia, Here I Come! premièred at the Dublin Theatre Festival, establishing Brian Friel’s international reputation. This new Lyric Theatre production is doubtless one of many that will be mounted globally to mark the play’s first half-century of existence....

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Dreamland by Jim Nolan

Reviewed by Úna Kealy on 04 February 2014 Feb 7th- March 15th in On tour- Waterford, Cork, Dublin

It is June 1934 and Seafield, a fictitious coastal town near Waterford, which provides the setting for Jim Nolan’s new play Dreamland. Atmospheric and sensory conditions are oppressive as a 70-tonne whale, washed up on the strand, stinks, rots and bakes in a heat wave. Johnny Kinanne, an Irish...

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The Risen People by James Plunkett

Reviewed by Susan Conley on 01 February 2014 Dec 4th- Feb 1st in The Abbey Theatre

The anniversary of the 1913 Lockout is relevant, insofar as the conditions that were the byproduct of the strike — frustrated men, despairing women, impoverished children — feel hauntingly familiar, one hundred years on. It seems to take The Risen People an incredibly long time to find its...

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Actions: An Evening of Men in Motion by Irish Modern Dance Theatre

Reviewed by Rachel Donnelly on 29 January 2014 28 Jan – 1 Feb 2014 in Abbey Theatre (on the Peacock Stage)

Action(s). It’s a word that can be taken several ways. It can mean something positive, in the sense of being proactive – to take action. Looked at in another way, it can be simply what someone has done – their actions. It can also mean the physical gestures made to accompany a song,...

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A Tender Thing by Ben Power, adapted from Shakespeare’s 'Romeo and Juliet'

Reviewed by Harvey O'Brien on 28 January 2014 28 Jan – 15 Feb, 2014 in Project Arts Centre, Dublin

A Tender Thing is a profoundly moving and brilliant piece of theatre, re-presenting and re-visioning Shakespeare in respectful but revelatory ways. The Dublin premiere is engaging and absorbing, with impressive technical credentials, insightful direction by Selina Cartmell, and great performances from...

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, adapted by James Maxwell

Reviewed by Jennifer Lee on 02 January 2014 Dec 3rd- February 8th 2014 in The Gate Theatre

When it comes to one of the most popular love stories of the nineteenth century, the Gate’s Christmas production of Pride and Prejudice is bound to induce a fair bit of hype among the predominantly female portion of theatre-goers. In wake of the 2005 cinematic revival of the Mr Darcy archetype...

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'Twas the Night Before Christmas/Oíche Roimh an Nollaig by Branar Theatre Company

Reviewed by Helen Cusack on 16 December 2013 29 Nov- 22 December 2013 in Pavilion Theatre Dún Laoghaire

It was 1948, “the year of the great excitement”, the year electricity arrived in Ballybrack. Branar borrows from Clement Clarke Moore’s classic poem to tell the story of one particular Christmas in the small rural town of Ballybrack. Unlike the poem, the town's excitement is not based...

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