Reviews

A Lost Opera

Review by
Seona Mac Réamoinn

3 stars

Amy, I want to make you hard

Review by
Jennifer Lee

3 stars

Autobiographer

Review by
Susan Conley

4 stars

Bás Tongue

Review by
Ruth Kennedy

4 stars

Better Loved From Afar

Review by
Jesse Weaver

2 stars

Bird with Boy

Review by
Michael Seaver

5 stars

Body Electric

Review by
Donald Mahoney

4 stars

Chesslaugh Mewash

Review by
Fíona Ní Chinnéide

3 stars

Criminal Queers

Review by
Harvey O'Brien

4 stars

Cult

Review by
Tom Donegan

4 stars

Do You Read Me?

Review by
Donald Mahoney

3 stars

Does Anybody Ever

Review by
Sara Keating

4 stars

Dreams of Love

Review by
Shirley Chance

3 stars

Eternal Rising of the Sun

Review by
Susan Conley

4 stars

Follow

Review by
Derek West

5 stars

Gis A Shot of Your Bongos Mister

Review by
Clara Kumagai

4 stars

Hand Me Down The Moon

Review by
Susan Conley

3 stars

Happening

Review by
Peter Crawley

4 stars

Heidi and the Bear

Review by
Susan Conley

2 stars

In My Bed

Review by
Jesse Weaver

4 stars

It's Your Turn To Change Daddy

Review by
Jennifer Lee

2 stars

Jumping Off The Earth

Review by
Christopher McCormack

3 stars

Last Year

Review by
Jesse Weaver

3 stars

Love Songs For Losers

Review by
Donald Mahoney

3 stars

Luca & the Sunshine

Review by
Tom Donegan

5 stars

MaDam

Review by
Tom Donegan

2 stars

maKe, i mean

Review by
Jesse Weaver

4 stars

My Word Is My Bond

Review by
Derek West

3 stars

Our Father

Review by
Jennifer Lee

4 stars

Pocket Music

Review by
Tom Donegan

3 stars

Seeing and Dreaming

Review by
Jesse Weaver

4 stars

Seekers

Review by
Seona Mac Réamoinn

3 stars

That's About The Size of It

Review by
Susan Conley

3 stars

The Bright Side of the Moon

Review by
Donald Mahoney

2 stars

The Flamboyant Bird

Review by
Jesse Weaver

4 stars

The Yellow Wallpaper

Review by
Tom Donegan

4 stars

Twenty Ten

Review by
Donald Mahoney

4 stars

Welcome to the Forty Foot

Review by
Derek West

3 stars

When Irish Hearts are Praying

Review by
Harry Browne

2 stars

Where Do I Start?

Review by
Jennifer Lee

4 stars
  • Review
  • Theatre

Produced by Maurice Joseph Kelliher in Project Arts Centre

Criminal Queers

22-24 Sept, 6pm

Review by Harvey O'Brien

Reviewed 22 September 2011

Absolut Fringe 2011

Maurice Joseph Kelliher's 'Criminal Queers'

This dance performance piece presents a series of encounters between characters of fluidly indeterminate gender and sexual orientation, riffing on the iconography of classic gangster movies. There is no narrative as such, but the performance is thematically (emotionally?) concerned with taboos and transgressions and built around duets that are at once combative, harmonious, and transformative. Dancers Isabella Oberländer and Olwen Grindley are accompanied by live vocal performance by David Turpin, deviser of the score, which is half ambient electronica and half torch song pastiche.

The production runs the risk of being entirely too straight for its own good (pun intended), but the execution is pleasing, the pace is brisk, and the running time is short. Long-limbed Oberländer makes a striking androgyene from the outset, while compact, powerful Grindley radiates strength even draped in a silky grey dress. There’s not a huge amount of fireworks in what we see, but the workrate is visibly high and the level of specificity in pose and gesture makes either for bafflement or joy depending on the degree to which you are attuned to its points of reference in classic movies and fashion.

Harvey O'Brien