Limerick’s City of Culture: The critical takeIt was a year that energised the city, its artists and, most significantly, the publicSat Dec 13 2014 - 06:00
Review: Beautiful DreamersTen stories high and innumerable stories wide, a co-prodution between Anu and Performance Corporation allows us to view the expanse of Limerick cityMon Dec 08 2014 - 10:05
Review: The Motherfucker with the HatStephen Adly Guirgis’s jittery comedy is alert to the struggles and supports of melting-pot New York. Its first Irish staging from Orion Productions tries to do justice to its voiceFri Dec 05 2014 - 16:20
Can The Lir become one of best drama academies in the world?The national academy produced its first trained actors this year; can it become one of the best drama academies in the world?Thu Dec 04 2014 - 06:00
Pat Kinevane’s singular vision from the brink of the worldThe Cork actor and playwright’s searing solo performances have a style of their own and have taken him to 18 countries – so why does he still struggle to admit that he’s a writer?Wed Dec 03 2014 - 01:00
Review: Defender of the FaithDecadent Theatre’s canny revival of Stuart Carolan’s play carries echoes of his TV show Love/HateFri Nov 28 2014 - 14:51
Review: Returning to HaifaGhassan Kanafani’s Palestinian novella of dispossession and uneasy return anticipates generations of conflict. A timely new adaptation finds room for its remarkably even-handed approachSun Nov 23 2014 - 20:00
Culture Shock: Are cliffhangers dead? Find out next week . . .‘Serial’, the world’s most popular podcast, uses the oldest trick in the book to hook listeners. But what happens when a real-life story doesn’t have the narrative twists and turns?Sat Nov 22 2014 - 01:00
Review: Wuthering HeightsThe moors of Emily Brontë’s novel are raging and unruly, peaceful and polite. Is the new Gate adapation torn between two worlds?Thu Nov 20 2014 - 01:00
Review: One Man, Two GuvnorsThe harried and hungry character at the centre of this ingeniuous and frantic commedia dell’arte update has never been a natural multitasker. The National Theatre London’s innocent and loaded production, on the other hand...Wed Nov 19 2014 - 10:00
Wuthering Heights: ‘There comes a point when you have to put the book down’As the Gate presents a fresh adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic of passion (or hysterical excess, depending on your outlook), a new Heathcliff and Catherine get to grips with our expectations and their interpretationsTue Nov 18 2014 - 06:00
Review: The Waste Ground PartyAs an inner-city community seethes, there is still cause for celebration in Shaun Dunne’s new play, which combines social realism and mysteryWed Nov 05 2014 - 15:22
Culture shock: When art and madness take centre stageOn the surface it was an act of self-harm, but Pyotr Pavlensky, a performance artist of growing renown, presented himself as a metaphorSat Nov 01 2014 - 00:00
Finding the means to put language itself centre stageBut long before play’s central theme is resolved, it’s all talked outThu Oct 30 2014 - 16:14
Review: The Playboy of the Western WorldBlue Raincoat’s fascinating production sharpens up the Synge song by keeping coolThu Oct 30 2014 - 16:13
The Arc: a team of dramatists undertake a mad experimentThe Arc saw 10 playwrights relay-write a new play during the Dublin Theatre Festival. The result is a glimpse into the furious energy of the theatreThu Oct 30 2014 - 01:00
Review: An Enemy of the PeopleIbsen’s classic is given an unsettling edge and a rock star glamour by Thomas OstermeierWed Oct 29 2014 - 17:45
Culture Shock: Reality check at Dublin Theatre FestivalThe audience and the city had important roles to play in this year’s festival, closing the gap between reality and fictionSat Oct 18 2014 - 01:00
DTF Review: Book BurningAn exercise in unadorned storytelling and sparing stagecraft resists the information overload of the modern worldFri Oct 10 2014 - 12:41
DTF Review: Perhaps All the DragonsHow many connections can we make during a sly multimedia performance inspired by the six degrees of separation theory?Wed Oct 08 2014 - 16:32
DTF Review: Paul Bright’s Confessions of a Justified SinnerA forgotten Scottish director’s incredible adaptation of an epic fiction is the basis for a riveting study in obsessionWed Oct 08 2014 - 16:28
Review: Our Few and Evil DaysNevermind Mark O’Rowe’s return to dialogue, does his family tragedy for the Abbey signal a new commitment to realism? Or is anything here as it seems?Sun Oct 05 2014 - 11:43
Review: Ganesh Versus the Third ReichAn artfully layered production from Australia’s Back to Back Theatre exposes the mechanics of power play and the right to represent controversial materialThu Oct 02 2014 - 15:52
Review: Hello My Name Is . . .Can a maniacally upbeat community centre worker change the world – with your help?Wed Oct 01 2014 - 17:07
Review: The Seagull and Other BirdsPan Pan Theatre makes Chekhov’s play the centrepiece of its crammed and elusive aviary. Are they able to wing it?Tue Sept 30 2014 - 16:25
Australia close up: tales of a stolen generation, swastikas and social changeDublin Theatre Festival’s Australian season is diverse in style and outlook, and represents theatre that has come a long wayMon Sept 29 2014 - 01:00
Dublin Theatre Festival review - VardoAnu Productions’ celebrated Monto Cycle comes full circle, where present day Dublin finds its history repeatingFri Sept 26 2014 - 13:13
Review: HamletThe festival opens with the Schaubuhne’s riveting and dangerous production of Hamlet. Though this be madness, yet there’s method in itFri Sept 26 2014 - 13:09
Okay composer: Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood goes classicalIs Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood a rock musician who crossed over to classical music, or a composer who crossed over to rock? Meet the man behind the MartenotFri Sept 26 2014 - 01:00
Monto is back: the sex trade and the business of hopeWith ‘Vardo’, the concluding part of Anu Productions’ thrillingly intimate four-part series, director Louise Lowe brings the extraordinary Monto Cycle full circle. But is that any way to leave it?Wed Sept 24 2014 - 01:00
Review: An Insignificant ManThe sweetly ghoulish Smilin’ Kanker is an expert in love. If only he could find oneThu Sept 18 2014 - 15:48
Review: B(r)itchesA clever new show about performance finds it hard to act naturallyThu Sept 18 2014 - 15:47
Review: WhichEver1UFeedThe most recent temptation of Christ explores the desires and duality of manWed Sept 17 2014 - 13:56
Review: ReckonersThere’s nothing personal (or political) about the revenge cycle in Ross Dungan’s new play. Does that give its characters a better chance of escape?Wed Sept 17 2014 - 13:53
Review: BrigitA prequel to his masterful Bailegangaire, Brigit fleshes out a complex family history, but Tom Murphy’s new play is a more vivid portrait of the artistTue Sept 16 2014 - 14:19
Review: BailegangaireDruid’s new production of Tom Murphy’s extraordinary play about inherited trauma and unfinished stories finds a fresh urgency for its own retellingMon Sept 15 2014 - 15:00
What have the Greeks ever done for us?Tragic protagonists ought to know they can’t escape their origins or elude their destinies. Is that why companies at the Tiger Dublin Fringe are returning to an ancient source?Sat Sept 13 2014 - 01:00
Review: Samuel Beckett’s FizzlesCompany SJ create a splitting performance from Beckett’s prose fragments in a crumbling building. Strangely, it becomes a wholly united experienceFri Sept 12 2014 - 13:24
Review: PilgrimA real tragedy and an epic myth inform a violent young Irish man’s quest for home. It takes a while to get thereFri Sept 12 2014 - 13:06
Review: The Well Rested TerroristA “live concept album” from alt-pop act Maud in Cahoots uses theatricality to expose a world of surfacesThu Sept 11 2014 - 12:08
Review: Bastard, A Family HistoryDescended from a long line of planted oppressors, an Irish actor wonders about his genetic inheritanceMon Sept 08 2014 - 12:17
Review: Some FloodThe only survivor of a biblical apocalpyse is a feckless young Irish lad. Isolated, bored and short on prospects for the future, has anything really changed?Mon Sept 08 2014 - 12:10
Fringe review: The Rest is ActionThe Oresteia is reduced to an hour in The Company’s arch and enigmatic new work.Sun Sept 07 2014 - 16:21
Fringe review: How to Keep an AlienWhen Sonya Kelly fell for an Aussie stage manager, the immigration bureau required documentary evidence. Wry, tender and imaginative, here is a stirring dossier of an accelerated romanceSun Sept 07 2014 - 16:20
Tom Murphy's new play draws on the source of all his storytellingA new play by Tom Murphy is something worth celebrating, and his latest, ‘Brigit’, draws on the historic source of all of his storytellingSat Sept 06 2014 - 01:00
Fran the man becomes Behan the borstal boyA varied theatre career – including his new role as Brendan Behan – should save Peter Coonan from being typecast as a crookWed Sept 03 2014 - 01:00
Stage Struck: the end game commencesWhether it comes as with a bang or a whimper, the ending of an act of theatre gives it shape and meaning. At best, it leaves us wanting more.Mon Sept 01 2014 - 15:22
