Friday, October 31, 2014

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 ...

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

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.


Saturday, October 25, 2014

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 ...

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

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 ...


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Fishamble, 'Spinning': Modern Family

The truth of contemporary family life is on Deirdre Kinahan's mind. However, the line between rationality and irrationality feels problematised. 


Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin Theatre Festival
Oct 3-12


My review of Spinning by Deirdre Kinahan coming up after the jump ...


Monday, October 6, 2014

Abbey Theatre, 'Our Few and Evil Days': Boy Who Cried Wolf

The artful surface of Mark O'Rowe's play leaves us suspecting throughout. Things are not what they seem.

Abbey Theatre, Dublin Theatre Festival 
Oct 3-Oct 25


My review of Our Few and Evil Days by Mark O'Rowe coming up just as soon as I say hello in Brown Thomas ...

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Gate Theatre, 'The Mariner': Off a Duck's Back

Can Hugo Hamilton's play plunge the depths of the great silence that Irish men brought home from WWI? 

Gate Theatre, Dublin Theatre Festival 
Sept 30-Oct 25

My review of The Mariner by Hugo Hamilton coming up after the jump ...

Friday, October 3, 2014

Brokentalkers, 'Frequency 783': Future Forecasting

Do you like to think about the future? In Brokentalkers' new production, an elderly performer envisions utopia while a younger performer can't help but meditate on his own destruction.  

Project Arts Centre, Dublin Theatre Festival
Oct 2-5


My review of Frequency 783 coming up just as soon as I don't drink wine in case I short-circuit ... 

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Pan Pan, 'The Seagull and Other Birds': Avant Garde a Clue

The artist in Chekov's The Seagull desperately searches for new art forms. Pan Pan's strategy for success is a fray of colliding texts. 


Project Arts Centre, Dublin Theatre Festival 
Sept 29-Oct 5


My review of The Seagull and Other Birds coming up just as soon as I buy two bottles of Pinot Grigio in the off licence ...


Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Corn Exchange, 'A Girl is a Half-formed Thing': Pieces of a Whole

Eimear McBride's boldly original novel has become a literary phenomenon. How can The Corn Exchange adapt it for the stage?


Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin Theatre Festival
Sept 28-Oct 5


My review of A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, adapted from the novel by Eimear McBride, coming up just as soon as I fight for opera tickets and drink schnapps ...