Thursday, June 11, 2020

Exotic v. Baskin review: An operatic riff on a trashy pleasure struggles to tame its subjects

Carlow Arts Festival's Tiger King-inspired opera sees a showdown between zookeeper Joe Exotic and animal conservationist Carole Baskin. 

Thursday, June 4, 2020

Black Lives Matter protests: Irish theatre has blindfolded itself to race

Boy Child, Felispeak's swooning spoken word drama about a man's coming of age in Nigeria, is one play that has felt like a drop in the ocean in recent years. 


Thursday, May 28, 2020

Howie the Rookie review: A vivid poignant broadcast from Mark O’Rowe’s Dublin underworld

Glass Mask's streamed theatre production, in conjunction with the Lock Inn, rediscovers the darkness and violence of Mark O'Rowe's breakout play. Photo: Seán Doyle

Thursday, April 30, 2020

We’re in Here review: A sly contemporary play about temporary disconnection and lasting gratitude

The narratives of a drama facilitator, a counsellor, and a son remembering his mother intermingle in John Doran's consoling new play. Photo: John Doran

Friday, April 24, 2020

The Little Foxes: Can the flapper generation of the Gate’s plays become the theatre’s playwrights?

Lillian Hellman in 1976. A revival of her 1939 drama The Little Foxes, now sadly postponed, could signal a new trend for how the Gate Theatre interprets the American playbook. Photo: The Advertising Archives

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Coronavirus arts measures: Politicians like talking art, just not the work involved in making it

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar aimed for a piece of rhetoric by quoting Seamus Heaney, but when politicians talk about the work involved in making art, they usually sound inarticulate. Photo: RTÉ

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

Coronavirus arts measures: The government took an arts policy and made it into a branding strategy

Last week, Minister for Culture Josepha Madigan launched new arts measures to cope with the pandemic, with €500,000 invested by the department. Photo: Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Irish Times Theatre Awards: The political avant-garde leads the pack, as the sector feels the cold

The Examination, a sly contemporary play exploring the Irish prison service, wins best production, in a year when the outwardly political shows are winners. Photo: Luca Truffarelli 

Thursday, April 2, 2020

The Duty of Harsh Criticism: It isn’t pointless to talk about art during the crisis

During World War I, book critic Rebecca West wrote the essay "The Duty of Harsh Criticism," a reminder that art must be talked about during the war. Photo: AP