Monday, April 3, 2023
Lyric theatre, BelfastOwen McCafferty’s dramatisation of the last days of negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement remains accessible while expertly conveying tortuous political t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42AMMonday, March 13, 2023
Abbey theatre, DublinPlacing modern tech in the baroque setting, Caitríona McLaughlin’s production emphasises artifice but leaves the central message unmoored
Secrets, lies and disguised …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:00AMSunday, December 11, 2022
Gate, Dublin Pam Gems’ play may have dated, but the tragic arc of Édith Piaf from street urchin to torch singer is still compelling, told through music that rings with drama
Edith Piaf’…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:18PMTuesday, October 18, 2022
Lyric, BelfastEffervescent jazz and operatic lyricism tease out the characters in Conor Mitchell’s ambitious production which grows thrillingly in impact – and in contemporary resonance
…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:33AMTuesday, October 11, 2022
Various venues, DublinGood Sex explores live performance and intimacy; Colic considers domestic disquiet; and All Hardest of Woman immerses the audience in the corridors of a maternity hospi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:25AMFriday, September 23, 2022
Abbey theatre, DublinO’Brien’s empathy for Joyce shines through in this lavish production, as she brings him to life, seen through the eyes of his mother, wife, daughter and lover
Markin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:37AMThursday, July 28, 2022
Gate theatre, DublinOwen Roe is riveting in Sebastian Barry’s deconstruction of a family set against the tensions of Irish independence
Sebastian Barry’s shimmeringly poetic memory play …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:07AMMonday, July 18, 2022
Nun’s Island theatre, GalwayIn a series of monologues, four characters in a small Irish town try to make their peace with painful pasts
Author Donal Ryan has a gift for eliciting sympathy …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:24AMSunday, July 17, 2022
Mick Lally Theatre, GalwayFour people in a line for theatre tickets grow increasingly fractious, competitive and entitled in Sonya Kelly’s deliciously spiky absurdist satire
Everybody know…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:33PMFriday, July 15, 2022
Town Hall theatre, GalwaySteppenwolf’s staging at Galway International Arts festival has a smart political and racial awareness as it unpicks the American myth
Sam Shepard’s story of two…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:03AMThursday, June 23, 2022
Cork cityFrom reflections on exile to an erotic turn in a lighthouse and a play about the stark reality of war, the festival makes a dramatic return
Cork’s annual festival makes an invigor…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:48AMThursday, June 2, 2022
Mick Lally theatre, GalwayRevival of Billy Roche’s sweet-sour memory play in which years of guilt and betrayal haunt friends in late-1980s Ireland
The streets of Wexford form a self-contai…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:18AMFriday, May 13, 2022
Gate, DublinThis intricate production of Nick Payne’s high-concept romance poses existential questions with elegance and levity
There were two lovers, Roland and Marianne, who lived in Lon…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:54PMFriday, May 6, 2022
Abbey, DublinWayne Jordan directs a sombre revival of Amy Conroy’s 2015 play exploring gender identity and family dynamics
What kind of man is it possible to be? That is Amy Conroy’s pro…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:33AMMonday, May 2, 2022
Lyric, BelfastCaitríona McLaughlin’s taut new production of Friel’s colonisation drama is a timeless study of change and identity
Brian Friel’s drama of colonisation becomes a timeles…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMSunday, March 27, 2022
The Pumphouse, Dublin PortAn unflinching look at the role of women is at the forefront of this gripping drama that brings hidden histories to the surface
Civil war brings devastation to one …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:33AMFriday, March 18, 2022
Abbey, DublinThe political intrigues muddy the drama of conscience but this is a sleek futuristic staging of Sophocles’ tragedy, adapted by Darren Murphy
A defiant young woman imprisoned i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:12PMFriday, February 18, 2022
Gate theatre, DublinThe comedian turns on the roguish charm as part of a dazzling cast that inject new poignancy into the absurdist classic
One of Samuel Beckett’s most celebrated plays, E…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:33AMThursday, February 17, 2022
Abbey theatre, DublinDenise Gough plays out Portia’s bleak 30th, defined by family resentments, misogyny and the spectral presence of her dead twin, in this disturbing drama
It is not only…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:18PMFriday, January 14, 2022
Abbey theatre, DublinWith a jazzy soundtrack and heaps of audience participation, this pared-back production manages to find light in the darkness of depression
Of all the brilliant things t…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AMMonday, December 13, 2021
Pavilion, DublinDruid theatre’s cast go all out for the ridiculous in this rarely performed triple bill, delivered with music hall flair
Druid theatre company’s triple bill by Seán O’…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:24AMThursday, December 9, 2021
Abbey theatre, DublinGillen, Niamh Cusack and Nigel Lindsay deliver haunting monologues in director Joe Dowling’s production
Frank Hardy, faith healer, was too brainy to be a true artist, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:42PMTuesday, October 12, 2021
Various venues, DublinImmersive Irish history, unacknowledged Aids deaths and post-coital chats – this year’s festival is challenging and entertaining
Returning to live performance with…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:42AMMonday, October 11, 2021
Lyric, BelfastEx-lovers attempt to rebuild a fence in Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney’s play marking the centenary of the partition of Ireland
An invisible line bisecting a boggy field …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:12AMMonday, October 4, 2021
Abbey, DublinSarah Hanly embodies a range of characters in her punchy debut play that explores the pressures on teenagers
“It’s a holy show,” Saoirse declares, as she comes round in ho…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:12PMThursday, September 9, 2021
With theatre for an audience of one, a whirlwind set of Kevin Barry stories and sparky songs, the Irish festival is in fine form
Adapting to Covid-19 restrictions with ingenuity, Galway inte…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:32PMMonday, September 6, 2021
Abbey, Dublin and available onlineRosaleen McDonagh’s play, an unsettling love story set in a Traveller community, has the ring of truthfulness
A love story shines through a mass of societ…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:24AMSunday, August 15, 2021
Edinburgh festival fringe, onlineDeirdre Kinahan’s play explores how culpable Máire can be for acts of cruelty, when she was brutalised as a young woman in a church-run institution
Deirdr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:03AMThursday, August 12, 2021
Coole Park, GalwayLady Augusta Gregory’s former home is an apt backdrop for this transposition of the play to 1880s Ireland
Druid Theatre Company’s outdoor setting of Thomas Kilroy’s C…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:48AMSunday, June 27, 2021
Cork Midsummer festival onlineVirginia Woolf’s novel, centring on an Edwardian marriage and the rupture of war, is richly adapted and beautifully staged with a strong ensemble cast
Shadow…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AMThursday, June 24, 2021
Abbey, Dublin, and onlineUna McKevitt’s droll domestic drama shows us a day in the life of a family dealing with the ill health of an ageing father
Reopening to live audiences for the firs…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:36PM 
