Friday, April 18, 2025
Project Arts Centre, DublinWith parts for imperilled creatures including dancing orange songbirds, this vision of environmental collapse wraps serious intent in absurdity
Aboard the Crystal …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:12AMMonday, April 14, 2025
Lyric, BelfastNancy Harris, the writer of acclaimed dark comedy The Dry, reveals her early mastery of family power games in this taut new production of her 2012 play that feels fresh and rel…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:12AMMonday, February 17, 2025
Glass Mask theatre, DublinSimon Stephens’s update of Franz Kroetz’s stark 1972 play sees butcher Charlie and welder Victor amid knives and flanks of meat, the threat of violence palpable…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AMMonday, December 2, 2024
Abbey theatre, DublinSet in a nonspecific Austenland inspired more by Hollywood than history, this is an energetic, puppyish production that is easy to like
Handsome, clever and rich Emma Wo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:36AMWednesday, October 9, 2024
Safe House is a haunting song cycle by Walsh and Anna Mullarkey while the experimental company’s Signal to Noise pushes language to breaking point
In a Dublin theatre festival programme ja…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:24PMMonday, July 22, 2024
An Taibhdhearc, GalwayCharacters suffer as they make painful choices between duty and desire in the premiere of Marina Carr’s play
The title throws a wild card into the mix in Marina Carr�…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24AMSunday, July 21, 2024
Bank of Ireland theatre, GalwayDirector James Riordan blends ancient ritual and modern technology, while the music of Julianna Bloodgood is compelling
Ethereal sound and imagery transform a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AMFriday, July 19, 2024
Mick Lally theatre, GalwayPlaying a disability rights lawyer and the philosopher Peter Singer, as well as themselves, the actors deliver a powerful production
A remarkable real-life encounte…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:02PMFriday, May 31, 2024
Gate theatre, DublinDirected by Róisín McBrinn, this 2009 play is an absorbing study of group dynamics, deepened by intricate dialogue and superb acting
Six weeks is a long time in theatre…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:02PMSunday, April 14, 2024
Gate Theatre, DublinSet in a 1918 maternity ward, the play offers moments of tenderness amid its commentary on political and social upheaval
A pandemic exposes deep social injustices in Emma…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:24AMSunday, March 3, 2024
Abbey, DublinThe black humour gets grimmer as two parents grieve the sudden death of their baby and a disturbing family history emerges
There are three kinds of sorrow, one character explain…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:48AMFriday, January 19, 2024
Project Arts Centre, DublinThere isn’t a hint of sentimentality in Vicky Featherstone’s delicately calibrated production of Samuel Beckett’s monologue about mortality
Making his annual…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:36AMWednesday, October 11, 2023
This year’s shows include a meditative new play from Janet Moran and an ironic variation on the romcom by Nancy Harris
Martyna Majok’s Ironbound (★★★★☆), first produced by Step…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:03AMFriday, July 28, 2023
Black Box theatre, GalwayThe immense artistry in Lara Foot’s staging succeeds in finding the emotional essence of JM Coetzee’s story of a humble man who endures pitiless treatment
‘My…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:55AMFriday, July 21, 2023
Abbey theatre, DublinTaking an absurdist approach to sexual consent and false memory, this polished play shifts disarmingly from spiky humour to tense confrontation
A children’s game of ma…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:25AMWednesday, July 19, 2023
Black Box theatre, GalwayMichael Keegan-Dolan charts how he found his creative voice alongside longtime collaborator Rachel Poirier
A dancer drags a bag of compost on to the stage and hacks …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:13AMFriday, June 23, 2023
Trojans ★★★★☆ / Freefalling ★★★★☆ / This is You ★★★☆☆Cork city, various venuesVirgil’s The Aeneid, a real life medical emergency on a tiny island and a young …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:55AMMonday, 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 11:33AM 
