2010s review: Writing about the art of terrible men

#MeToo is transforming theatre, and it is transforming criticism. Illustration: Don Conroy

2019: The best theatre of the year

My favourite theatre moments of 2019: The Children, Pretty Feelings, Beckett's Room, Tall Tail, and Endgame. 

Faultline review: A heartfelt depiction of a movement gaining ground

ANU and the Gate Theatre's new immersive play is set in 1982, when hundreds of LGBTQ+ people were under investigation. Photo: Pat Redmond 

The Beacon review: An absorbing thriller about blood thirst

A famous artist relocates to an island cottage - the spot where she's suspected of having murdered her husband - in Nancy Harris's new play. Photo: Robbie Jack 

Last Orders at the Dockside review: An old-fashioned play, and not because it's set in the 1980s

A community joins in paying tribute to a dead man in Dermot Bolger's new play. Photo: Ros Kavanagh  

Your Words in My Mouth - Brussels Take review: A play casting its audience and cementing their eyes to the script

Inside a secretive meeting place, a small audience recreates a real conversation between Belgian residents. 

Hecuba review: A touching war story encouraging us to look closer

Queen Hecuba is exiled in this ancient tragedy, but Marina Carr's intimate reimagining gives all its characters multiple perspectives. Photo: Ste Murray  

Pasolini’s Salò Redubbed review: A notorious film becomes an overwhelming mirror up to Ireland’s past

Dylan Tighe's bold adaptation transposes Salò from Italy to the early decades of the Irish state, an era when alliances were hatched between church and state. Photo: Luca Truffarelli 

Mám review: A dance through Ireland’s subconscious without any coherent point

Michael Keegan-Dolan's new dance resembles scenes from a dramatic community gathering, but its nostalgia doesn't make it complete. Photo: Ros Kavanagh 

Beckett’s Room review: Samuel Beckett and Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil’s touching story of survival

This miraculous play without performers takes us to Nazi-occupied Paris, and the source of Samuel Beckett's storytelling. Photo: Kyle Tunney

Incantation review: Misty performance art about intergenerational trauma

Maïa Nunes, an artist of Irish-Trinidadian descent, connects to her forebears in this performance art. Photo: Alan Gilsenan

Sorry Gold review: An intoxicating and profound aerial epic

 

Emily Aoibheann's extraordinary aerial dance brings us from the heights of civilisation to its wreckage.  Photo: Eoin Kirwan 

Some Names Were Changed review: Fiction brings us closer to the truth in this cluttered documentary play

In Ross Dungan and Ronan Phelan's new interactive play, the audience help tell the story of a married couple. Photo: Patricio Cassinoni

Fetch review: Superb art-horror installation about impending disaster

Two strangers meet onboard a flight in this installation, presented inside a shipping container. Photo: Paula Trojner

Pretty Feelings review: A magnificent surreal comedy about the art of love

The goddess Venus is the director of a match-making agency in this ebullient production. 

Sink review: A play excavating two women's lives and discovering too little

An archaeologist digs up a bog body in John O'Donovan's new play, but ends up uncovering the trauma of another woman. Photo: Keith Dixon 

Bodies of Water review: An arty play-installation but a shallow exploration of grief

A curator holds a retrospective of her missing partner's artwork in this new play-installation.

A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings review: Sublime children’s theatre about an elderly prisoner

A couple stumble across an old man with wings in Gabriel García Márquez's story for children. Photo: Ste Murray 

This Beautiful Village review: A simplistic play dismantling the patriarchy over wine and crackers

Members of a residents association meet to discuss a piece of graffiti in Lisa Tierney-Keogh's new play. Pat Redmond 

The Hunger review: Donnacha Dennehy’s plotless opera set during the Famine

The Hunger is based on the writings of an American philanthropist who visited Ireland during the Famine. Photo: Pat Redmond

The Roaring Banshees review: This gangster play would be a scream if it spilled more blood

A rogue Cumann na mBan unit fight Chicago gangsters in Peter McGann and John Morton's new play. 

Where are You From? review: Slick but unfocused docudrama from Dublin to the New Territories

Choy-Ping Clarke-Ng pieces together her mixed race and queer identity in a new play with fresh perspectives. Photo: Isaac Harris

Least Like the Other review: This opera about JFK’s hidden sister is swamped by visual effects

Bill Irvine and Netia Jones's new opera treats its performers like ciphers instead of characters. 

Epiphany review: Druid’s new play has too many ghosts not enough plot

In Brian Watkins's new play, guests at a dinner party try to solve what the Epiphany is about. Photo: Robbie Jack

Tree authorship accusation: The job specifics of dramaturg have been hazy long enough

Playwrights Sarah Henley and Tori Allen-Martin said they were dismissed from writing Tree, as a script continued to be developed by dramaturg Kwame Kwei-Armah. Tree photo: Marc Brenner

Plays and adaptations: Is the Abbey playing the Gate’s game?

An adaptation of Roddy Doyle's novella Two Pints plays the Abbey Theatre. 

Brendan Galileo for Europe review: A heartfelt comedy about a union in trouble

An independent candidate runs in the European elections in Fionn Foley's superb comedy. Photo: Cáit Fahey. 

Evening Train review: This dark barroom musical is staged as if it's already closing time

Life is a series of wagers in Mick Flannery's new musical, as its characters seek escape from a small town. 

Tall Tail review: An excellent Pixar-bright debut about a dog caught in the homelessness crisis

Al Dalton's play for young audiences finds a dog who takes us through life with his homeless master.

Midsummer (a play with songs) review: A romantic comedy where the characters spend more time talking to us than each other

David Greig's play follows two lovers on a dizzying weekend in Edinburgh. Photo: Keith Dixon 

Citysong review: Wordy play about a Dublin family misses its tragicomic notes

Dublin is a record in Dylan Coburn Gray's new play, and time jumps like a needle skipping backwards. Photo: Ros Kavanagh 

The Magic Flute review: Trying to make something of Mozart’s wild music

A prince accepts a mission to rescue a princess in The Magic Flute but not all of it is plausible. Photo: Pat Redmond

La Natura Delle Cose review: A dance masterpiece chronicling the life of one character

Dublin Dance Festival present Virgilio Sieni's dance inspired by a Lucretius poem. Photo: Paulo Porto 

A Streetcar Named Desire review: Tennessee Williams's masterpiece becomes an absorbing psychodrama

This revival of Williams's play about a woman visiting her sister shows the horrors of domestic abuse. Photo: Johnny Frazer

The Glass Menagerie review: Tennessee Williams's breakout play with a little too much polish

The Wingfield family of The Glass Menagerie are all left behind, in some respect, by the world. Photo: Ste Murray 

It Was Easy (in the End) review: THEATREclub's coproduction with the Abbey is a bit of a mess

Grace Dyas's new play follows a group of off-the-grid artists imagining the end of capitalism. Photo: Dorje de Burgh

Spotless review: A peculiar fathering crisis drama turns fascinating thriller

In Gary Duggan's new play, a seemingly transparent young man works his way into the affections of two women. Photo: Keith Dixon 

In Our Veins review: A muddled history of a Dublin docker family

Lee Coffey's ambitious new play rushes through a century of the Dublin docklands. Photo: Pat Redmond 

“Everyone’s a critic”: As column inches narrow, it's time for editors to raise standards

One of the puzzling editorial decisions, in these straitened times, is the Irish Times commissioning book reviewers who have eked out careers in literary writing as opposed to journalism. 

Beginning review: A flintily genuine view of people seeking connection

Two remaining people at a house party navigate their complicated lives. Photo: Ros Kavanagh

Irish Times Theatre Awards: Why the most conventional production is a timely winner

DruidShakespeare: Richard III mightn't be the most aesthetically groundbreaking winner but it does feel globally relevant. Photo: Robbie Jack 

Bold Moves review: Ballet Ireland search for an insurrection with the off-the-wall Gaga movement

This absorbing production is a triple-bill of dances about flights of departure. Photo: Declan English

Irish Times Theatre Awards predictions: Seeing all four Best Production nominees won’t make you any wiser

Best Production nominees: The Lost O'Casey, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, DruidShakespeare: Richard III and How It Is: Part One

Sure Look It, Fuck It review: The thick haze of a spoken word nirvana

Clare Dunne's debut play follows a returned emigrant through one day in Dublin, struggling with anxiety. Photo: Fiona Morgan 

In a freak occurrence, a new play has sold out the Gate Theatre. For once it might have been the reviews

Seán McGinley and Marie Mullen in The Children, the first recently-written play to fill the Gate in years. Photo: Ros Kavanagh 

Theatre Upstairs shuts doors at Lanigan’s: A look back on the past nine years

Theatre Upstairs announced their closure on Thursday night.

Peat review: A superb childhood adventure about coping and moving on

Two friends bury a dead cat in Kate Heffernan's comedy for young audiences, and unearth serious questions about the world they've inherited. Photo: Ros Kavanagh

The Children review: Intimate drama presented as environmental disaster in Lucy Kirkwood’s magnificent play

Two retired nuclear scientists are visited by an old colleague in this excellent drama. Photo: Ros Kavanagh 

The Country Girls review: Edna O'Brien's groundbreaking novel receives a strange otherworldly production

O'Brien adapts her novel for the Abbey Theatre, following two young women expelled from school and starting their next stages of life in Dublin. Photo: Ros Kavanagh

22 years at the Irish Times Theatre Awards: An inconsistent ceremony shows signs of growth

In 2016 DruidShakespeare was the first production to take the major awards of Best Production, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Director. Photo: Matthew Thompson