Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Ulysses review: RTÉ’s staggering 29½-hour radio play of James Joyce’s wild gibberish novel

In Joyce's story, Leopold Bloom navigates an unhappy marriage and Stephen Dedalus searches to elevate everyday heartache into epic poetry

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Exotic v. Baskin review: An operatic riff on a trashy pleasure struggles to tame its subjects

Carlow Arts Festival's Tiger King-inspired opera sees a showdown between zookeeper Joe Exotic and animal conservationist Carole Baskin. 

Thursday, June 4, 2020

Black Lives Matter protests: Irish theatre has blindfolded itself to race

Boy Child, Felispeak's swooning spoken word drama about a man's coming of age in Nigeria, is one play that has felt like a drop in the ocean in recent years. 


Thursday, May 28, 2020

Howie the Rookie review: A vivid poignant broadcast from Mark O’Rowe’s Dublin underworld

Glass Mask's streamed theatre production, in conjunction with the Lock Inn, rediscovers the darkness and violence of Mark O'Rowe's breakout play. Photo: Seán Doyle

Thursday, April 30, 2020

We’re in Here review: A sly contemporary play about temporary disconnection and lasting gratitude

The narratives of a drama facilitator, a counsellor, and a son remembering his mother intermingle in John Doran's consoling new play. Photo: John Doran

Friday, April 24, 2020

The Little Foxes: Can the flapper generation of the Gate’s plays become the theatre’s playwrights?

Lillian Hellman in 1976. A revival of her 1939 drama The Little Foxes, now sadly postponed, could signal a new trend for how the Gate Theatre interprets the American playbook. Photo: The Advertising Archives

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Coronavirus arts measures: Politicians like talking art, just not the work involved in making it

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar aimed for a piece of rhetoric by quoting Seamus Heaney, but when politicians talk about the work involved in making art, they usually sound inarticulate. Photo: RTÉ

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Coronavirus arts measures: The government took an arts policy and made it into a branding strategy

Last week, Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan launched new arts measures to cope with the pandemic, with €500,000 invested by the department. Photo: Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Irish Times Theatre Awards: The political avant-garde leads the pack, as the sector feels the cold

The Examination, a sly contemporary play exploring the Irish prison service, wins best production, in a year when the outwardly political shows are winners. Photo: Luca Truffarelli