Abbey Theatre, 'Heartbreak House': Christened After Tennyson

100 years after the outbreak of the Great War, do we still live in the world of Shaw's play -  where society drifts towards destruction? 

Abbey Theatre

Aug 20-Sept 13 

My review of Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw coming up just as soon as I break it down for you in degrees ...

Lyric Theatre, Punk Rock: Teenage Kicks

Under Selina Cartmell's moshing and incisive direction, it slowly becomes a question of who is the loose trigger in Simon Stephens' play?

Lyric Theatre, Belfast
Aug 14-Sept 6


My review of Punk Rock by Simon Stephens coming up just as soon as I sort you with a second edition of Waverly …

City Bridge Transforms Into Harp as Fringe Festival Invokes Classical Myths

Dublin Fringe opens with Ulysses Opera Company's HARP | A River Cantata - an outdoor performance about the Harp of Dagda.

Painted up in new stripes, Dublin Fringe Festival (running Sept 5-20) went into their programme launch this week with an image and line-up of events that felt refreshingly new. Ahead of his first festival as director, Kris Nelson - formerly a Montreal-based producer - secured the organisation with a new sponsor in Tiger Beer, instilling his confidence in the role. In terms of vision, you'd wonder if he'd continue in the same strain as previous director Roise Goan, who in the years of economic collapse shaped the festival into an important site of theatrical activism. With an emphasis on exploring the city, turning it into a backdrop for Irish and Canadian histories and revisiting ancient mythologies in hopes of claiming something new, it seems that Nelson's adventurous spirit as a recent-arrival in Dublin is set to be infectious.

Landmark Productions, 'Ballyturk': Everything We Thought We Knew

The affect of watching Enda Walsh's play is to feel certainty of time and place constantly slip away. Will we ever find our way back from Ballyturk? Photo: Patrick Redmond

Black Box Theatre, Galway International Arts Festival

Jul 14-27

My review of Ballyturk coming up just as soon as I don't think bunnies should be given that complexity ...

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.

Moonfish Theatre, 'Star of the Sea': While the World Was Quietly Dying

Moonfish mast the sail with invention to spare in this reimagining of Joseph O'Connor's famine ship novel. Photo: Marta Barcikowska.

An Taibhdhearc, Galway International Arts Festival

Jul 15-19

My review of Star of the Sea, freely adapted from the novel by Joseph O'Connor, coming up as soon as I claim to know 500 songs ...

Anam Theatre, 'Low Level Panic': Everyday Sexism

Claire McIntyre's Low Level Panic debuted in 1988. Anam's production has us consider how sexism has changed since.

The New Theatre

Jul 15-19

I don't have time to do a full review of Low Level Panic.


Debuted in 1988, British playwright Clare McIntyre's play is set in a bathroom where three women consider the omnipresence of pornography and female objectification they feel in their lives.

From the moment the male stagehands dismantle Róisín O'Toole's artful set, Justin Martin's staging never lets up a domineering gaze onto these women's lives. The sexually-infatuated Jo (Eimear Kilmartin) initially seems empowered but eventually succumbs to weight pressures and scrutinises her body. More traumatised is Mary (Sarah O'Toole), who still reels from a sexual assault from her past. Most composed is Celia (Aoife Martyn) but as she rushes to answer the door to an impatient beau, you'd wonder if she is about to stumble into danger.

Anam's production is laden with modern references, making concentrated use of smart phones and references to last year's 'Slane Girl' controversy.

It has its bad habits. Martin's direction can be fussy (overcrowding the stage with 18 actors at one point). Kilmartin swaggers like a comedienne and sometimes her affect is hammy, while Sarah O'Toole's considered turn doesn't fully chart her character's psychological damage.

However, it's a gutsy and political move by O'Toole's Anam company, with moments that are disarming. After a smutty exchange about nudity and sex, the naturalism of the scene melts away with a type of  Michael Chekov-inspired movement that illustrates two women's inner selves. Despite societal grievances, the truth is they are beautiful.


What did everybody else think?

Blue Raincoat, 'On Baile's Strand': Lending Names Upon the Harp

An outdoor performance of Yeats' 1904 play about Cuchulain's madness feels like an old treasure washed ashore. 

Cummeen Strand, Sligo

July 12

My review of On Baile's Strand by WB Yeats coming up after the jump ...

Sugarglass Theatre and Gillen & Belling Productions, 'LAPSE'

With almost sorcerous sensibility, Sugarglass realise magician Shane Gillen's performance about memory. 

Smock Alley Theatre

July 3-12

I've never reviewed a magic show before but I thought LAPSE was worth a few words. Plus, it's co-produced by Sugarglass Theatre, whose work I often admire. 

Through the lens of memories of his deceased grandfather Roddy, magician Shane Gillen's performance explores memory, its substance and transference. His tricks have audience members participate in mind-bending illusions - how he stays a step ahead of the crowd is a mystery. 

With production support by Sugarglass Theatre, Marc Atkinson and Colm McNally continue to provide effervescent design. Atkinson isolates the different acts with an almost sorcerous sensibility, instilling a space obscured by smoke and mystically transformed by incandescent lighting. 

If you are to consider it dramaturgically, you might think Gillen's references to memory theorists and scientists, while heavy handed and not easily absorbed, to be filler between tricks rather than making any considerable point. The finale is also one of the few predictable moments in the evening. 

I wouldn't let it restrain you. Gillen is magnetic, his tricks maddening and unquestionably convincing. Even if his explorations of memory mightn't materialise fully, LAPSE will certainly stay with you for a long time.

What did everybody else think?

Abbey Theatre, 'Aristocrats': The Big House

As the walls of Ballybeg Hall crumble in Patrick Mason's staging, you find yourself strangely unsympathetic. 

Abbey Theatre

Jun 24-Aug 2

My review of Aristocrats by Brian Friel coming up just as soon as I recognise the McCormack waltz ...