The Snow Queen review: A compassionate fairy tale heating up the cold-hearted

BrokenCrow's audio play adaptation delivers Hans Christian Andersen's bright-coloured characters while staying devoted to a sweet but shaken childhood friendship. Photo of Deirdre Dwyer by Enrique Carnicero

Musings in Intermissions at 10: Where is the master playwright?

The past 10 years have been a struggle against an anxiety over who the next number one playwright is going to be. Photo: Anton Chekhov's summerhouse in  Gurzuf, Yalta

2020: the best theatre of the year

My favourite theatre moments of the year: Hansel and Gretel, Our New Girl, The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Will I See You There.

What Happened to Lucrece review: A catastrophe of an opera experiment

Based on Shakespeare's tragic poem The Rape of Lucrece, each performance of Wexford Festival Opera's eccentric opera features a different ending. Photo: Padraig Grant

Embargo review: A play dressed like a War of Independence thriller

A train driver must decide between assisting the IRA or helping a vulnerable woman in Deirdre Kinahan's new play. Photo: Anthony Woods

The Party to End All Parties review: Plot and character disappear into a spectacularly beautiful cityscape

Taking place against the 1949 celebrations of Ireland becoming a Republic, ANU and Dublin Theatre Festival's streamed play is about unfulfilled promises and lives falling apart. Photo: ANU 

To Be a Machine (Version 1.0) review: The first major streamed play is here

An adaptation of writer Mark O'Connell's book about encountering members of the transhumanism movement brings classic illusion to streamed theatre. Photo: Ben Kidd / Dead Centre

DruidGregory review: An uneven blend of razor-sharp comedy and muffled song

Druid's cycle of plays by Lady Gregory is set in an early-century version of Galway, where communities are splintered by divisions and persuasive songs are in the air. Photo: Matthew Thompson

Transmission review: Crucial moments captured beautifully in the passing light

Caitríona Ní Mhurchú tries to live in the present in her new play, but her family's history holds fascinating surprises.  Photo: Jason Byrne 

Before You Say Anything review: Multiple stories forced into an elegant flawed play

Three seemingly unrelated stories about people unsafe from the police merge in Malaprop's new play. Photo: Simon Lazewksi

Will I See You There review: Eavesdropping on a touching reunion in a city square

 

In this slick play-installation, the audience peers down from above and listens to a chance encounter between friends through headphones. 

Token Cis review: Some shakily constructed jokes but this comedy material is gold

 

Alive to empty symbols of effort, the main parody by this comedy troupe is to give stage time to guest cisgender comics as if they're doing them a favour. Photo: Shubhangi Karmakar

The First Pegeen review: Sad forbidden romance in the Celtic Twilight

In this biographical drama about the Abbey Theatre star, Molly Allgood attends the funeral of her lover John Millington Synge from a distance. Photo: Futoshi Sakauchi

Solar Bones review: Experimental novel adapted into absurdly random ghost story

 

Mike McCormack's novel sees the ghost of a man return to his home on All Soul's Day. Photo: Ste Murray  

The Happy Prince review: Alluring production of Oscar Wilde’s story without the decadent comedown

The statue of a prince peers into the lives of a city's misfortunate inhabitants, in Oscar Wilde's story for children. 

Seraglio review: An opera from the lost season reimagined as a daringly modern miniseries

In Irish National Opera's hands, Mozart's orientalist singspiel loses the arabesques and makes the move to lockdown Dublin.

Binge review: A gleeful performance installation on Zoom where treasured television shows hold life’s answers

This interactive performance, presented by Cork Midsummer Festival, makes reassuring parallels between the audience's stories and the lives of fictional television characters. Photo: Christa Holka

Ulysses review: RTÉ’s staggering 29½-hour radio play of James Joyce’s wild gibberish novel

In Joyce's story, Leopold Bloom navigates an unhappy marriage and Stephen Dedalus searches to elevate everyday heartache into epic poetry

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. 

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. 

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

Coronavirus arts measures: The Culture Ministry is a carriage waiting to turn into a pumpkin

Bewley's Café Theatre is the first venue to be seriously impacted by the pandemic. Photo: Bewley's

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

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

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

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

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 

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

The Dragon: The uplifting fantasy comedy staged at the end of a pandemic

Lady Gregory's 1919 comedy is set in a mythical castle on the Burren, where, according to a prophecy, a princess will be devoured by a dragon. Photo: NUI Galway archives

Coronavirus: Art has a kind of magic. It’s helping to counteract feelings of separation and loneliness

As the virus spreads, art is synthesising new connections. Painting: Three Witches (scene from Macbeth) by William Rimmer. 

The Cherry Orchard review: Tonally uneven production of Anton Chekhov’s Russian revolution comedy

A broke aristocratic family face selling their estate, in Anton Chekhov's comedy. Photo: Robbie Jack 

Our New Girl review: Sexism satire meets psychological thriller in Nancy Harris’s outstanding play

A nanny arrives out of the blue, to help a woman with her troubled son, in Nancy Harris's psychological thriller. Photo: Ros Kavanagh

The Fall of the Second Republic review: Dark satire trying to bare a heart of gold

The Corn Exchange and the Abbey's new comedy is set in a 1970s version of Ireland, where an opportunistic Taoiseach conspires to cling onto power. Photo: Ros Kavanagh

Dream, Sleep, Connect review: Romantic comedy struggling to make big statements about the digital era

A singleton working in big data searches for a date to his office party, in Rosemary Jenkinson's new comedy. 

Mamafesta Memorialising review: A superb dance against dementia both sad and uplifting

Choreographer Philip Connaughton fears losing his memory in this marvellous new dance. Photo: Luca Truffarelli 

Medea review: Serious performances in an adaptation that doesn’t show the same commitment

Euripides's ancient tragedy is seen from a child's perspective, in Kate Mulvany and Anne-Louise Sarks’s version. Photo: Ros Kavanagh 

Election 2020: When do you know you’re walking around a cultural ghost town?

Irish writer Maeve Brennan wrote about the demolishment of culture in 1960s New York. Photo: Getty Images

The Lieutenant of Inishmore review: Martin McDonagh’s spectacular gunfight takes risky new shots

Martin McDonagh's dark comedy about a Republican terrorist is more ridiculing and subversive than ever. Photo: Patrick Redmond

Irish Times Theatre Awards nominations: The most bizarre shortlist ever

Epiphany, Brian Watkins's Joyce-inspired play for Druid, is one of the best production nominees not nominated for either best actress, best actor or best director. Photo: Robbie Jack 

Flights review: The sad dispossession of our era in a play that isn’t quite there

Three men gather on the anniversary of their friend's death in One Duck's funny and tragic new play. Photo: Ste Murray 

Gone Full Havisham review: Enjoyably ridiculous old-school psychological horror

In her enjoyable solo play, Irene Kelleher is pleasantly over the top as a bride whose breakdown has gone viral. 

Collapsing Horse has disbanded, THEATREclub's future is uncertain. Both embodied youthful resistance to the Recession

Bears in Space, a puppet comedy by Collapsing Horse. Photo: Idil Sukan