Reviews

Belfast Festival at Queen's: Sanctuary by Theatre of Witness

Reviewed by Miriam Haughton on 25 October 2013 17-19 Sept; 24-25 October 2013 in Brien Friel Theatre at Queen's University Belfast

“Maybe tomorrow will be my day. Maybe tomorrow I will begin my new life,” concludes Maryama Yuusuf, a Somalian mother of nine who fled her country following war, famine, slavery and rape. Assisted by an ‘agent’ out of her native land, she had hoped to go to America to be reunited...

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First Cosmonaut by Jocelyn Clarke

Reviewed by Rhona Trench on 23 October 2013 23 Oct - 2 Nov, 2013 in The Factory Performance Space, Sligo

There is a great simplicity in the narrative of Blue Raincoat Theatre Company’s latest play, First Cosmonaut by Jocelyn Clarke, staged this week in their resident space in the Factory in Sligo town. And this simplicity has allowed Blue Raincoat shape the story in a direction that draws on their...

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Beyond the Brooklyn Sky by Michael Hilliard Mulcahy

Reviewed by Finian O'Gorman on 22 October 2013 9 Oct - 27 Nov, 2013 in Town Hall Theatre & touring

Stories that employ nostalgia as their central driving force have an enduring appeal; they hinge on the ‘what if’ moments that define our lives. Beyond the Brooklyn Sky is this type of story. Jack (Jaimie Carswell), Josie (Una Kavanagh), Mags (Sorcha Fox), Brendy (Aidan Dooley) and Greg (Malachy...

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Belfast Festival at Queen's: Belfast by Moonlight by Carlo Gébler

Reviewed by Tom Maguire on 18 October 2013 in St George's Church, Belfast

One of the great joys of this performance is that it allows access to a building that would otherwise remain inaccessible to many of Belfast citizens. Saint George's is the oldest Anglican Church in use in the city. This production is one of a series of events celebrating its bicentenary in 2016. Situated...

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Frank Pig Says Hello by Patrick McCabe

Reviewed by Úna Kealy on 17 October 2013 25 Sept - 15 Nov, 2013 (on tour) in Theatre Royal, Waterford

Patrick McCabe’s Frank Pig Says Hello is an explosively powerful, angry-poignant and ultimately heart-rending dramatisation of Frank Brady who, as a young boy and adolescent, is driven beyond the boundaries of his mental and emotional health by his inability to cope with growing up, the loss of...

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Duck, Death and the Tulip by Cahoots NI, from a story by Wolf Erlbruch

Reviewed by Terence Blain on 17 October 2013 15 Oct - 2 Nov, 2013 in the Lyric Theatre, Belfast

Sometimes, theatre is there to help us see things which are difficult to say to one another. That's especially true of children's theatre, where the inadvisability of overloading scripts semantically forces an inventive approach to alternative methods of communication. That's precisely the area in which...

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The Hanging Gardens by Frank McGuinness

Reviewed by Jesse Weaver on 14 October 2013 9 October-9 November, 2013 in Abbey Theatre

The challenge taken up by longtime collaborators Frank McGuinness and director Patrick Mason in staging The Hanging Gardens is how to stage a coherent representation of a failing mind. This is not a necessarily new challenge (King Lear comes to mind), but it’s certainly a worthy one. More and more...

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The Commitments by Roddy Doyle

Reviewed by Fintan Walsh on 11 October 2013 27 Sept 2013 - 26 Jan 2014 in the Palace Theatre, London

Soul may be “the rhythm of riding,” as Jimmy Rabbitte (Grindel) tells one of his new band’s recruits, but this musical moves to a different time still, racing through an extensive repertoire of tunes. Adapted by Roddy Doyle from his 1987 novel of the same title, there is surprisingly...

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What Happened Bridgie Cleary by Tom MacIntyre

Reviewed by Rachael Finucane on 10 October 2013 10 - 19 October 2013 in the Victoria Snooker Hall, Limerick

“I never knew anyone that wasn’t someway prisoner,” says Bridgie Cleary at the very outset of the play bearing her name—an omen that the ties that bind form the basis of this dramatic lament. The story is based on the real-life tale of a seamstress burnt to death by her husband...

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Dublin Theatre Festival: The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare

Reviewed by Jennifer Lee on 10 October 2013 10-12 October 2013 in O'Reilly Theatre

The excavation of an epic narrative poem that is more than four centuries old is an exhilarating if dangerous prospect in the world of contemporary theatre, particularly when the poem is one written by Shakespeare (tread carefully now, I’m thinking with nervous uncertainty as I scan the theatre...

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