Fishamble, 'Underneath': On the Brink of Genius or Virtuosity?

Kinevane's poetic drama pursues ideas of beauty. It's a question of whether or not you'll appreciate its eclecticism. Photo: Patrick Redmond.

Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick City of Culture
December 5-6


My spoiler-free review of Underneath by Pat Kinevane coming up just as soon as I headbutt the Queen ...

Maiden Voyage Dance and Liz Roche Company, 'Neither Either': In Two Places at Once

Seamus Heaney's 'strain of being in two places at once' inspires this North-South co-production. 

Project Arts Centre

Nov 11-15

My review of Neither Either coming up after the jump ...

Amalgamotion Theatre, 'The Lighthouse Keeper': Full Circle

A daughter becomes her mother's home carer in Ella Daly's new play. But a healthcare system under strain poses challenges.

Dance Limerick, Limerick City of Culture

Nov 12-15

My review of The Lighthouse Keeper by Ella Daly coming up after the jump ...

Wildebeest, 'On the Wire': The Sons of Munster March Towards the Somme

A Limerick soldier returns home from fighting in WWI. Following him inside a crumbling Victorian house to face his psychological trauma, we might confront our wider amnesia about Ireland's participation in the Great War.

The Sailor's Home, Limerick City of Culture
Nov 11-15 


My review of On the Wire coming up just as soon as I see that lightning bitch ...

Guna Nua, 'The Unlucky Cabin Boy': Three Sails

A ship from 1830s Limerick, The Francis Spaight, sails again in Guna Nua's new musical. The demise of an unlucky cabin boy is part of local folklore but its tragedy resonates beyond the City of Culture. 

Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick City of Culture

Nov 6-8

My review of The Unlucky Cabin Boy coming up just as soon as I have a tumble with a hefty maid from Kilmallock ...

Abbey Theatre, 'The Waste Ground Party': Community Outreach

In Shaun Dunne's drama an inner-city Dublin community prepares to celebrate the paving of a waste ground. But in the face of regeneration some things never change. Photo: Ros Kavanagh. 

Peacock Theatre

Nov 5-22

My review of The Waste Ground Party by Shaun Dunne coming up just as soon I pass you the collection plate in a church ...

Ether Productions, 'The Locked Room': Flown Away With the Circus

Two circus performers wake up with amnesia inside a locked room. For Ether Productions, the only way is up.

Project Arts Centre

Oct 29-Nov 1

My review of The Locked Room coming up just as soon as I beat you in Rock-Paper-Scissors ...

Celebrating Stoker by Interrupting the Ordinary

Macnas return to Dublin for the Bram Stoker Festival and the scale of the performance is epic. 

You'd think it was an ordinary day in Dublin: mellowing outside a Temple Bar café, elaborate coffee in hand. Then a pale fellow donning a crimson overcoat, with more than a smidgen of blood dripping from his mouth, thoughtfully says hello with a flash of his fangs.

An agent of Dracula perhaps? Or maybe Jo Mangan, theatre director of The Performance Corporation and artistic leader of the Bram Stoker Festival. Sending these vampiric figures (Anthony Kinahan and Camille Ross, sticking their charismatically deformed necks out) to scour the streets is one of Mangan's methods to engage the wider city, which is surely a challenge. The broad programme of events including a fancy-dress Shapeshifters Ball at IMMA, a VampWire zip-line in Wolfe Tone Square, and a range of readings and lectures seems intent to draw blood from that figurative stone.

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 ...

Lyric Theatre, 'Pentecost': Historical Days in Lilliput

Director Jimmy Fay lays the symbolism a bit thick in his staging of Stewart Parker's play but its final scene is transcendent.

Lyric Theatre, Belfast

Sept 24-Oct18

My review of Pentecost by Stewart Parker coming up after the jump ...