Reviews

The Real Man by Zeitgenossen

Reviewed by Terence Blain on 22 June 2013 20 - 22 June 2012 in the MAC, Belfast

What with the Titanic centenary last year, and the 400th anniversary of Belfast's civic charter this year, there's been a veritable spate of plays about the city in recent times, of widely varying quality. It can begin to feel like navel-gazing, frankly, so it's good to see a new company turning decisively...

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Deep by Raymond Scannell

Reviewed by Laura O’Mahony on 21 June 2013 21 - 30 June, 2013 in the Half Moon Theatre, Cork

The moment we set foot in the Half Moon Theatre, we are thrown back in time to the ‘90s, to an era that is still just reachable in our memory bank, but falling out of our grasp with the passing of each day. Deep invites us back to a time in the city when lives were falling apart, but souls came...

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The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, adapted by Conflicted Theatre

Reviewed by Sarah England on 21 June 2013 21 - 30 June 2013 in Millennium Hall, Cork City Hall

Adaptation is a tricky thing. Going from page to stage means that an audience can arrive loaded with preconceived ideas of how the story should be told. Then there is the issue of presenting a familiar story in a fresh way to a knowing audience whilst simultaneously catering for an audience that is unfamiliar...

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Snake Oil by Alan O'Regan

Reviewed by Susan Conley on 20 June 2013 18 - 29 June 2013 in Theatre Upstairs @ Lanigan's

What’s at stake, and who’s in charge? Alan O’Regan’s one act play is a good, formal exercise in dramatic basics. Who wants what? How are they going to get it? What is it worth to them? Is it really worth it in the long run? This last is the kicker, as the effort employed by Shell...

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Howie the Rookie by Mark O'Rowe

Reviewed by Harvey O'Brien on 17 June 2013 17 June - 13 July 2013 in Project Arts Centre

An instant classic in 1999, Mark O’Rowe’s Howie the Rookie returns to Dublin almost a decade and a half on renewed and retooled as a solo performance directed by the playwright. It is, quite simply, an essential experience. Painful as such a cliché may sound to our jaundiced ears, how else...

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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, adapted for stage by Tony Chesterman

Reviewed by Donald Mahoney on 16 June 2013 10 - 22 June 2013 in The New Theatre

In a New York Review of Books essay from last year entitled ‘What To Make Of Finnegans Wake?’, American writer Michael Chabon was surprisingly dismissive of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Describing it as “unlovable” and a “stamp in the passport’, Chabon...

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Shush by Elaine Murphy

Reviewed by Sara Keating on 12 June 2013 12 June - 20 July, 2013 in the Abbey Theatre

In Elaine Murphy's 2008 play Little Gem, the lives of contemporary Irish women were thrust centre-stage with vivid realisation. Presented in monologue form, Little Gem was a first-person treatise that spanned generations of women, giving a frank and unsensationalised representation of family relationships...

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Closer by Patrick Marber

Reviewed by Siobhán O'Gorman on 07 June 2013 5 – 8 June 2013 in Town Hall Studio, Galway.

Watching Closer today, it is easy to see why Patrick Marber’s 1997 play became a Broadway hit, later adapted to the synonymous movie featuring some of Hollywood’s A-list. A dark, domestic comedy, it offers snippets from several years within the lives of two couples (Alice and Dan, Larry and...

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Conversation with a Cupboard Man by Ian McEwan

Reviewed by Ian R. Walsh on 06 June 2013 4 - 15 June 2013 in Theatre Upstairs @ Lanigan's

This monologue piece produced by Sickle Moon Productions is directly taken from Ian McEwan’s short story of the same name. The story has much to recommend it for dramatisation: it is told in a strong first person narrative and the monologue form seems apt for a story that concerns a man who struggles...

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Kiss Me and You Will See How Important I Am by Eva O’Connor

Reviewed by Jennifer Lee on 04 June 2013 4 – 8 June, 2013 in Project Arts Centre

Mental illness is no laughing matter (although we laughed, in parts) but yes, it’s fascinating to watch, when viewed from a safe distance. Sprawled bare-footed on a grubby bedsit couch is Alex, our very own 'girl interrupted'. She swigs from a cheap-looking bottle of red wine and tells us she...

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