Cyclamen Productions, 'Fireplay': Friendship Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

Can James Ireland's tragedy find its spark?

The New Theatre

Jan 5-10

My review of Fireplay by James Ireland coming up just as soon as I play a game of Beggar-My-Neighbour ...

Irish Theatre to See in 2015

ANU Productions present PALS, an installation based on events surrounding the Irish who fought at Gallipoli in WWI. 

Some plays for your diary ...

More Irish Theatre Highlights of 2014

School was out this summer and some of the first graduates of The Lir lent serious verve to Selina Cartmell's kinetic staging of Punk Rock. 

I already made a list of my top 10 Irish theatre productions of 2014 but here are more highlights that deserve mention ...

Irish Theatre Top 10 of 2014

Enda Walsh's play Ballyturk preached the idea of pushing life, and theatre, to the very edge 

As per the year end ramble of making lists, below I give what I think are the highlights of 2014 in Irish theatre.

This year I wrote about 109 productions mounted in 6 different counties, with generous support from many producers and venue managers along the way.

Below are the 10 that struck me most:

THISISPOPBABY and Panti, 'High Heels in Low Places': National F*&king Treasure

Earlier this year, Panti dragged a debate about homophobia into the public realm. Resisting the pressure of being a LGBT representative, the drag queen returns to form. 

  

Project Arts Centre
Dec 1-6


Earlier this year I wrote about Panti's performances on the Saturday Night Show and her Noble Call. My review of High Heels in Low Places coming up just as soon as I see Madonna's arm ...

Devious Theatre, 'War of Attrition': Bitches be Chuggin'

A blogger turns a chugger's life into a nightmare in John Morton's play. An apathetic generation is using the internet as a battlefield.   

Project Arts Centre

Dec 16-20

My review of War of Attrition by John Morton coming up just as soon as I listen to Toto in an elevator ...

ORion Productions, 'The Motherfucker with the Hat': Your, Whaddyacallit, World View

New York is a high octane and revelatory trip in Stephen Adly Guirgis's comedy. What's the point of getting sober? Photo: Táine King. 

The New Theatre
Dec 3-20


My review of The Motherfucker with the Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis coming up just as soon as I give you a small fuzzy bear that grips and shit ...

ANU Productions and The Performance Corporation, 'Beautiful Dreamers': Loud City Song

As the City of Culture year approaches its end, ANU and The Performance Corporation start a conversation about Limerick. Photo: Patrick Redmond

69 O'Connell St (Meeting Point), Limerick City of Culture

Nov 27-Dec 6

My review of Beautiful Dreamers coming up just as soon as my uncle was a pork butcher ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...