That 'Marry' Is the Very Theme

Production image of I ♥ Alice ♥ I by Amy Conroy (photo: Ruby Washington). As the nation approaches a referendum on same-sex marriage, what has Irish theatre told us about marriage and gay lives?

Who would have thought that Dion Boucicault, the 19th century Irish melo-dramatist who nowadays fills seats for the popular and commercial theatre, is presently one of the most politically provocative playwrights in the United States? Or at least sharing the mantle with the rising Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who has adapted Boucicault’s The Octoroon for New York’s Soho Rep.

Druid Announces Details of DruidShakespeare

Two out of three kings have been cast as women: one of several innovative decisions made in Druid's presentation of Shakespeare's Henriad Cycle. 

Details of DruidShakespeare have been announced. Click on to my feature at A Younger Theatre to find out more ...

Irish Theatre to See in 2015

ANU Productions present PALS, an installation based on events surrounding the Irish who fought at Gallipoli in WWI. 

Some plays for your diary ...

Irish Theatre Top 10 of 2014

Enda Walsh's play Ballyturk preached the idea of pushing life, and theatre, to the very edge 

As per the year end ramble of making lists, below I give what I think are the highlights of 2014 in Irish theatre.

This year I wrote about 109 productions mounted in 6 different counties, with generous support from many producers and venue managers along the way.

Below are the 10 that struck me most:

Blue Raincoat, 'The Playboy of the Western World': Going to the Dogs

The stifling realism of Synge's play prompted riots at its 1907 premiere. What happens when Blue Raincoat take The Playboy of the Western World out of the peasant cottage?  

The Factory Performance Space, Sligo 

Oct 22-Nov 1

My review of The Playboy of the Western World by John Millington Synge coming up just as soon as I set the guardian angels winking in the clouds above ...

Druid, 'Bailegangaire': Drawing Wisdom From the Fire

The 1984 premiere of Bailegangaire has been passed on like a folktale by those who saw it. Alongside the new prequel Brigit, will Garry Hynes' revival be as momentous?

Town Hall Theatre, Galway

Sept 14, 17, 19, 20, 21

My review of Bailegangaire by Tom Murphy coming up just as soon as great rumbles start risin' in the barrel of my chest ...

Druid, 'Brigit': What the Oak Meant

30 years ago Tom Murphy conveyed the mythic timelessness of Irish storytelling in Bailegangaire. The new prequel Brigit sees the playwright tracing our traditions back further than before. 

Town Hall Theatre, Galway

Sept 14, 16, 18, 20, 21

My review of Brigit by Tom Murphy coming up just as soon as I hang my cloak on a sunbeam ...

Druid, 'Be Infants in Evil'

Playwright Brian Martin's professional debut is an ambitious approach to a heavily stigmatised subject. 

Mick Lally Theatre, Galway International Arts Festival

Jul 10-26

I reviewed Be Infants in Evil for Irish Theatre Magazine, which you can read here.

Sound off your thoughts in the comments below.

Make Theatre a Part of Your Holidays this Summer

Ballyturk is looking quite the vacation spot this Summer. 

Whether you're hiking the McGillycuddys, sailing off the Causeway or sinking golfballs in Pirate's Cove, a trip to the theatre this summer is only a short drive away ...

Druid, 'The Colleen Bawn': Spake It, Don't Spray It

Druid's revival of the Boucicault classic reminds us what is needed to pull out all the stops for the pronounced theatrical form: the Melodrama.

Gaiety Theatre
Jan 21-25

My review of The Colleen Bawn by Dion Boucicault coming up just as soon as I'm as broad in the back as the Gap of Dunloe ....

Irish Theatre to See in 2014

Some plays for your diary ...

Theatre Festival Season is Over but the Best May Still to Come

Production image of Blue Raincoat's upcoming production of First Cosmonaut by Jocelyn Clarke. The best Irish theatre of 2013 may still be on the way.

As usual, the combined mass of Dublin Fringe Festival and Dublin Theatre Festival may have exhausted many theatre goers. But not as normal is the fact that a certain benchmark feels yet to be achieved by this time of the year. The festival season usually produces some of the most powerful productions of the year. For example, at this point last year we had WillFredd's wonderful FARM, Have I No Mouth by Brokentalkers, ANU's The Boys of Foley Street, and the blistering Druid/Murphy cycle. 2013 feels yet to produce something on the same power levels as these works, though LIPPY, Thirteen, and the Gate's A Streetcar Named Desire are definitely up there.

The truth may be that the best plays of 2013 have yet to deliver. And over the next three months several of the country's most exciting companies put on their latest work. So get over your festival fatigue and mark these dates in your calendar:

New Tom Murphy Play and Mark O'Rowe's Adaptations of Shakespeare Make Up New Druid Line-Up

Details yet to surface on the new Tom Murphy play Brigit.

Exciting news from Druid Theatre Company after announcing their next line-up of plays.

Towards More Landmark Plays

Cillian Murphy in Misterman fighting against the trend of 'fundraiser plays'

One of the oldest rules in the book to guarantee a theatre company's survival has been to build a repertoire of plays, preferably ones that have earned a buck at the box office. The strategy is to draw on past hits, specific to the company or to the commercial theatre in general, and use funds to stay afloat. These fundraiser plays are safe and they may feel like nothing new but sometimes they're used to fund a later production that is compellingly new, rich with risk and innovation, something that will stay in your memory for years to come: the landmark play. What merit we can award a company depends on how that balance is struck between the fundraiser play, with its necessities of survival, and the landmark play, which can truly advance the artistry of the company.

Irish Theatre in 2012: Sacred Duties

In keeping with tradition I decided to do another write-up on the year that was, theatre-wise.

Last year I wrote about how I felt about lists and how un-useful they can be, so I'll be keeping with the approach of a discussion. Feel free to contribute in the comments section below.

On the subject of 2012, you'll probably have noticed that this blog has been inactive for most of it. This has been a result of time commitments to PhD research, work, a foray into making theatre (which is perhaps better left undiscussed), and to writing about theatre elsewhere and being paid to do so.

However, I've been thinking a lot recently about returning to the self-publishing ways. Aside from the insane amount of other things I have to do, I've found myself capable of writing faster, and so I think a weekly blog post is certainly achievable.

So please stick around (any press managers out there please retain my contact information!), and I'd like to wish Happy Holidays to all who have been around these parts, even if they have been quieter than usual.

My thoughts on Irish Theatre in 2012 after the jump ...

Druid, ‘Big Maggie’: Of Land, Of Lady

The Gaiety, Dublin

Nov 21-26

My review of Big Maggie by John B. Keane coming up just as soon as I find Molly Gibbons’s grave ...

February 2011 Listings: An Encore for Raymond Scannell’s ‘Mimic’, Raincoats ‘At Swim’

A fluttering of tweets this evening has announced the programming of a show called Mimic at the Project Arts Centre from Feb 22-26. After doing my homework I learned that Mimic is playwright/actor Raymond Scannell’s dark satire about “exploring imitation, authenticity and what happens to a nation that leaves its heritage behind”. I saw Scannell in Druid’s The Walworth Farce in 2009, in which he was fantastic. Mimic sits the actor at a grand piano, where he tells the story of a man who’s become a professional Mimic and left a cultural climate of economic and spiritual freefall and then returns home to find things have changed. Scannell bagged the Best Male Performance Award ABSOLUT Fringe 2009 for the role.

Tom Creed (Attempts on Her Life, Watt) is billed as director in past press releases of the show, though there is no mention of him on the Project website in relation to this run. Creed is one of the most ingenious practitioners in the country at the moment, having in the past year put together Una Santa Obscura (another musical composition realised for stage, this time combining an elliptical violin sonata with a coherent theatrical narrative in marvelling a devout mystic and composer of the 12^th century) and Berlin Love Tour, the latter of which was one of the greatest shows I saw last year and for which performer Hilary O’Shaughnessy is a contender for the Irish Times Theatre Awards.

I carelessly left out mention in my February Listings of Blue Raincoat’s adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s At Swim: Two Birds at the Project Arts Centre, Feb 22nd-Mar 5th. Having seen it back in 2009 I would highly recommend it. Blue Raincoat’s production values are nailed together by the ensemble’s command of corporal mime techniques. These guys are absolutely marvellous to see moving onstage. I’ll be writing a post where people can find my review of the 2009 show and discuss the Project show if desired (I know the cast has had some changes and the show could possibly have developed since last I saw it).

So, do you think you’ll be going to Mimic or At Swim: Two Birds?

Musings Listings: February 2011

With many of the country’s greatest theatre acts taking off these days to tackle America with Culture Ireland’s ‘Imagine Ireland’ scheme, Dublin theatre audiences appear to have been left at the mercy of oestrogen-empowered comedies such as Calendar Girls in the Grand Canal or Adele King’s Grumpy Old Women in the Gaiety. While these large-scale, internationally-toured productions are sure to bring in the big bucks, there are a lot of local performances to be excited about also. Indeed, February 2011 can be characterised as a month of Irish theatre where the parents have gone away on business and the kids are now out to play.

Wish I had seen ‘Medea’: Irish Times Theatre Awards Nominations

It’s been over a week since the Irish Times Theatre Awards nominations were announced, and I was too busy working on a show at the time to write my thoughts on them.

First: I’m glad to see Pan Pan’s The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane (*) is a contender for ‘Best Production’. I was curious to see how the judging panel would grade the show considering its postmodern nature and the indefinite variables in its live performance (I wonder how our three Hamlets were considered in the ‘Best Actor’ category?). No show had more confident a harness of theatricality this past year than Playing the Dane, and while Gavin Quinn has carelessly been excluded from the category for ‘Best Direction’ it’s great to see fellow Pan Pan genius Aedín Cosgrove get recognition for her set design. By also throwing Anu Productions’s World’s End Lane into the dogfight, the judges have admirably chosen to acknowledge theatrical ingenuity not only in performance that is strictly traditional but also in the increasing output of postmodern work as well.

(*) The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane review:

http://musingsinintermissions.blogspot.com/2010/10/pan-pan-rehearsal-playing-dane-bins.html#more

Most prominently felt in this shortlist is Siren Productions for their performance of Medea (pictured above) in the Fringe, which has bagged five nominations including ‘Best Production’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Actress’. I didn’t see the show but I have heard good things, and would be interested to hear from those who saw it if they think it deserves such attention.

Best of Irish Theatre 2010 #2: Druid, ‘Penelope’

Druid Lane Theatre, Galway

Jul 8-24

 

“A group of men with a common ideology, a collective direction! That’s what you’re suggesting, Quinn! We’re building a company right here!” 

– Dunne

“There’s no point. We’re the talking dead. Now I want to talk about my friend Murray” 

– Burns

Choosing only five productions from this past year has not been an easy task. Even tougher was deciding which order they should be in.

I gave The Company #5 for their sharp ingenuity and effortless charm. I gave Druid’s The Silver Tassie #4 for the momentous production values and O’Casey’s enigmatic script. Christ Deliver Us!, then, felt like the perfect match of the greatest theatrical resources of the nation with one of the strongest literary voices of the nation. The Abbey-Thomas Kilroy combo was perfect in poetry and relevance. However, I don’t think it quite beats the latest jewel from Druid’s genius correspondence with Enda Walsh.