Reviews

Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi

Reviewed by Wolfgang Marx on 14 November 2009 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 November, 2009 in Gaiety Theatre

Is Macbeth a prisoner of fate or in charge of his own destiny? Will the prophecies be fulfilled regardless of what he does, or could he resist the witches’ tempting words and his ambitious wife’s pressure? In Opera Ireland’s new production of Verdi’s first adaptation of a Shakespearian...

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Helter Skelter / Union Square by Neil LaBute

Reviewed by Patrick Brennan on 14 November 2009 11 - 28 November, 2009 in Bewleys Cafe Theatre

Neil LaBute’s theatre usually involves presenting us with seemingly ordinary situations that swiftly enough end up having a very dark underbelly. His dramas invariably confront audiences with deeply disturbing and complex moral dilemmas; ostensibly quotidian situations become examples of extreme...

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The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky (music)

Reviewed by Helen Meany on 11 November 2009 6 - 28 November, 2009 in London Coliseum

For choreographers, The Rite of Spring has become a rite of passage. Since the first, fabled, production of the ballet by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1913, Stravinsky’s radical score has posed a challenge to generations of dance artists. It invites them to pitch themselves into its ferocious,...

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The Revenger’s Tragedy by Mike Finn, adapted from a play by Thomas Middleton

Reviewed by Breda Shannon on 11 November 2009 9 - 21 November, 2009 in Belltable Arts Centre

As you take your seat at the Belltable’s off-site space on Cecil Street, the ugliness of the scaffolding cyclorama that reaches all the way up to the flies, surveying a bleak detritus of discarded rubbish - mattress springs, a cement mixer, graffiti walls and a grotto of religious iconography -a...

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Knives in Hens by David Harrower

Reviewed by Susan Conley on 10 November 2009 9 - 28 November 2009 in Smock Alley, Dublin

There is so much talk of God in David Harrower’s 1993 play, it stirs up one’s internal catechism. The following sprang from the recesses of memory: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… Through him all things were made; without him nothing...

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The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl

Reviewed by Fintan Walsh on 10 November 2009 9 - 21 November, 2009 in The New Theatre

Matilde (Villegas) is a cleaner who would rather be a comedian. Her mother died while laughing with her father, and he subsequently shot himself. So she leaves Brazil in search of the perfect joke, even though she fears that when she finds it, it will kill her. Although the premise is a bit whimsical,...

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A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, translated by Paul Larkin

Reviewed by Harvey O'Brien on 10 November 2009 3 November - 3 December, 2009 in Helix Theatre (on tour)

Henrik Ibsen’s deployment of economics as a root for dramatic tension makes his work entirely apropos in the age of recession. Without even needing to push the text into the realm of allegory, any story of fiduciary mismanagement and the confrontation of ethical responsibility for moral evasion...

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Rough Magic SEEDS Showcase 2009 by SEEDlings

Reviewed by Sara Keating on 09 November 2009 4- 14 November, 2009 in Project Cube

The directors’ projects at this year's SEEDS Showcase are a study in contrasts. Where Dying City is a restrained and intimate study of grief for two actors, Serious Money is a complex, multi-stranded, postmodern performance piece for an ensemble of fifteen. However, both of the plays present problems...

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Wallace, Balfe and Mr. Bunn by Bernard Farrell

Reviewed by Una Kealy on 06 November 2009 5 - 14 November, 2009 in Theatre Royal, Waterford

Brendan Farrell’s new musical play is set in the Theatre Royal in the present day and is presented as the posthumous production of Mr Alfred Bunn, the original producer of composers William Vincent Wallace, Michael Balfe and Sir Julius Benedict, contemporaries working in musical theatre in London...

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At Swim Two Birds by Flann O'Brien, adapted by Jocelyn Clarke

Reviewed by Patrick Lonergan on 06 November 2009 3 - 14 November; on tour February 2010 in The Factory Performance Space, Sligo

The decision to produce a stage adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s 1939 At Swim-Two-Birds will strike many as an enormous gamble. Yes, Blue Raincoat did a great job with their version of O’Brien’s The Third Policeman back in 2007. And, yes, the novel has been adapted a few times before,...

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