Monday, April 20, 2026
Abbey, DublinAn unnamed narrator recollects a 1970s childhood of institutional brutality and sectarianism in this allusive memory play
Language is twisted and slippery in Frank McGuinness di…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:06AMMonday, March 9, 2026
Abbey theatre, DublinDirector Tom Creed brings this 1926 political classic into the present, with a tremendous cast navigating the tonal switch from comedy into tragedy
Marking the centenary…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:42PMThursday, February 19, 2026
Abbey theatre, DublinThe sale of the parental home triggers a generational showdown in Una McKevitt’s droll play about money, inheritance and caring for ageing relatives
On a brief st…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:06PMWednesday, January 7, 2026
Abbey theatre, DublinBarbara Bergin’s tale follows four families through strikes in the slums, the Easter Rising, the early years of independence and the HIV-Aids crisis of the 1980s
…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AMMonday, October 27, 2025
Lyric, BelfastAnna Healy and Patrick O’Kane give nuanced performances as a volatile, long-married couple bunkered in a cottage that’s being slowly engulfed by fire
It is diffic…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AMFriday, October 10, 2025
Axis Ballymun, DublinMixing childhood memories, songs and Shakespeare, Michael Patrick delivers a one-man show about the reality of being given four years to live
Michael Patrick may not liv…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:02AMMonday, October 6, 2025
Gate theatre, DublinO’Sullivan’s account of a childhood and early adulthood marked by poverty, addiction and abuse is made into an at times affectingly raw play by Sonya Kelly
…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:24AMSaturday, October 4, 2025
Abbey, DublinTwo new plays reimagine Sophocles and Euripides with lavish scale, mordant humour and fresh interrogation of power and prophecy
‘We are the new gods,†Oedipus, King …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:02AMTuesday, August 12, 2025
Deaf Republic, a collection of war poems written by the Ukrainian American Ilya Kaminsky, have caused a sensation. Now they have been turned into an extraordinary play
In Vasenka, a fictiona…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:54PMSunday, July 20, 2025
Mick Lally theatre, GalwayTo mark their 50th anniversary, Druid Theatre Company pair Shakespeare with JM Synge’s stark one-act tragedy
Marking 50 years of exceptional theatre-making, …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:48AMFriday, July 18, 2025
Atlantaquaria, GalwayMikel Murfi enters the three-metre-high glass tank to lift weights, look lost and direct fishy traffic
It is hard to tell what the fish make of Mikel Murfi’s intr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:24AMMonday, June 16, 2025
Abbey theatre, DublinTommy Tiernan and Aaron Monaghan are given comedic free rein as a pair of hapless, homeless siblings in Kevin Barry’s Beckettian take on rural dysfunction
The hap…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:32AMFriday, 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 violenc…
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 program…
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 …
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 RóisÃn 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 the…
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
Ma…
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 (★★★★â…
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 treatm…
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 …
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 Ae…
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 politi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:42AMMonday, March 13, 2023
Abbey theatre, DublinPlacing modern tech in the baroque setting, CaitrÃona McLaughlin’s production emphasises artifice but leaves the central message unmoored
Secrets, lies and dis…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:00AM 
