CoisCéim, 'AGNES': Hey Pete, Play That Music

Choreographer David Bolger gives gesture to the ballads of Agnes Bernelle in a dazzling tribute. 

Project Arts Centre
Mar 16-22


My review of AGNES by David Bolger coming up just as soon as I give a damn that I can't reach top C ...

McKeague and O'Brien, 'The Rising, and by way of interludes World War I': The Jig's Up

The first play in the lead-up to the 1916 centenary has arrived ...

Powerscourt Theatre
Mar 11-21


My review of The Rising, and by way of interludes World War I by Joe O'Byrne coming up after the jump ...

Abbey Theatre, 'Conservatory': Schrödinger's Cat

In Michael West's study of affectation can an elderly couple possess the truth that allows their family to move on from a dark past? Photo by Ros Kavanagh.

Abbey Theatre

Mar 12-Apr 12

My review of Conservatory by Michael West coming up just as soon as I am the poet laureate of derelict houses ...

Gúna Nua, 'Faith': We're All On the Edge

Paul Meade's new play asks where to place our faith after Irish institutions were discredited in the economic bust. 

Civic Theatre

Mar 4-8

I saw Faith by Paul Meade last week. While watching, it occurred to me how in the past year new plays about Recession Ireland and the demoralising realities of the economic crash have become more frequent. Carmel Winters' Best Man, though more interested in sensationalist plotting, at least brought recent shifts in materiality and sexuality into play, while Colin Murphy's excellent docudrama Guaranteed! showed how the collapse of a tiny bank brought an entire financial system to the brink of destruction. 

Other writers saw how economic shifts are systematically linked to shifts in mental health. Stefanie Preissner's Solpadeine is my Boyfriend was already a shinning pillar of this, a verse about the dissolution of a nation through emigration. Elizabeth Moynihan's dimmed Marvel tried to shed some light on the mental decline of the scathed banker figure, while a monologue by Paul Kennedy for Smashing Times' Witness brought us into a marriage strained by a bad investment and the arrival of the bailiffs. Ultimately, David Fennelly's Fishes, currently running at Bewley's Cafe Theatre, feels the most exact in tracing the alienation felt in the country. 

Into this category comes Meade's play about a laid off salesman and depressive played by Don Wycherley who's struggling to keep up the social obligations of he and his wife at the golf club.

Bewley's Cafe Theatre, 'Fishes': TO COPPERS!!!

David Fennelly's writing debut might just be one of the more accurate portrayals of Recession Ireland. 

Bewley's Cafe Theatre

Mar 11-Apr 5

My review of Fishes by David Fennelly coming up just as soon as I tie up my GAA jersey into a belly top ...

Liz Roche Company, 'Interloper': Nowhere to Go

Could Liz Roche's dance about un-belonging also be a dance that doesn't belong to convention? 

Samuel Beckett Theatre

Feb 27-Mar 1

My review of Interloper by Liz Roche coming up after the jump ...

WillFredd Theatre, 'CARE': For More Than Just a Day

WillFredd's mindful production is a sincere portrayal of palliative care and its mixing of medicine and mirth.

Project Arts Centre,

Feb 20-Mar 1

My review of CARE coming up just as soon as the doctor and nurse go have a little chat ...

Gate Theatre, 'The Vortex': The Hostess With the Mostess

Noël Coward said that his plays should foremost entertain the audience. Can Annabelle Comyn get The Vortex to sing a more provoking note? 

Gate Theatre

Feb 18-Mar 22

My review of The Vortex by Noël Coward coming up just as soon as I labour eternally over the delusion that I somehow matter ...

Lyric Theatre, 'Molly Sweeney': Seeing the Light

Abigail Graham makes a picturesque production out of Friel's lowly play.

Lyric Theatre, Belfast

Feb 8-Mar 8

My review of Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel coming up just as soon as I remember the high summer of my 32nd year ...

Danú Theatre and ORion Productions, 'Breathless'

John MacKenna's play about disappeared women is impressively revived by two headstrong producers.

Smock Alley Theatre
Feb 3-15


I've written a lot this week and unfortunately I don't have time to do a full review of Breathless.


When John MacKenna's play about four disappeared women premiered in 2005 by Kildare's Mend and Makedo company, he noted how missing persons cases in the area had brought an immediacy to the play's content. 

Now co-presented by Sinead O'Riordan's ORion Productions and Danú - a company founded by Donna Patrice to promote female subjectivity in Irish arts - the play is revived with strong production values. David Butler's architecturally aware set impressively builds on from the existing brick walls of Smock Alley and the performances, from industry veteran Ruth McCabe to newcomer Kate Gilmore, are of a professional standard. 

MacKenna's script is more powerful in sentiment than in composition though. It's honourable to restore reputations of humour and dignity to women who violently perished at the hands of men, and furthermore to have the dead debate how they wish to be remembered. It feels inconsequential though; the characters don't transform and there is no link between the discovered details of their disappearance to the resolution of their crisis. Butler's design tries to suggest a precariousness of place but otherwise the play, when not eliciting laughs, can feel static.

Though overall lacking resolve, the passages which describe their disappearances are haunting and dutifully delivered by all involved.

But I'm really curious to hear what everyone else thought of this?