IRELAND THEATER REVIEWS

As an expat in Dublin, it is easy to inhabit a 'Future Ready' version of the city. The tech hubs, the digital trends, and the fast-paced day-to-day consume us. We often walk these streets without digging into the history of the ground we stand on, treating the past as a distant backdrop rather than ...

What happens to a 'progressive' community when its members' points of view become irreconcilable? In this sharp and sobering production of Eureka Day at the Gate Theatre, Jonathan Spector’s script serves as a prophetic mirror to our post-pandemic reality. ...

Charles Gounod took Shakespeare’s tale of the star-crossed lovers and adapted it to create the 1867 opera, Roméo et Juliette, with an overture and Shakespeare’s explanatory prologue, delivered by the chorus, followed by a five-act opera, with a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. ...

SIX the Musical Live! is the filmed version of the hit musical about the six wives of Henry VIII that has taken the world by storm. The show has been seen by over 3.5 million audience members around the world since it first debuted at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017. The original West End cast...

This blog post takes a look at the skills that can be developed outside of the classroom through-extracurricular activities and why it should be encouraged for students to participate....

An insight into the current academic year so far reflecting on my classes and what student have to look forward to as well as that, discusses the highs and lows of returning to class after the Summer Break....

Sonya Kelly’s touching and kinetic Once Upon a Bridge imagines the lives of three protagonists in the leadup and aftermath of a near-tragedy on London’s Putney Bridge in 2017....

Ross Ainslie is one of Scotland's most beloved musicians....

Ita??s unsurprising why Amazon has decided now is the time to release a recorded performance of Heidi Schrecka??s electric political play, What the Constitution Means to Me, on its Prime Video streaming platform. Playing herself, Schreck takes us back to her childhood of speaking at oratory competi...

The most famous lines associated with the play Cathleen ní Houlihan (1902) aren’t actually in the script....

Born Josephine Alexandra Mitchell in 1903, 'Zandra' Mitchell hailed from a distinguished musical family in Phibsborough, Dublin. A multi-talented musician, Zandra was drawn to the saxophone as a teenager. In her 20's, oblivious to Irish tongue wagging, she ventured off with an all-women band enthral...

1980. The Dublin docklands. Family and friends gather at their local pub after the funeral of their beloved patriarch, a prominent and well-respected docker.  The gathering is timely as they are inadvertently the final patrons of the establishment. The following morning the pub is due for demoli...

Much like our Parisian friend Amelie, an only child who paints her world with her vivid imagination, pint-sized Hannah Mamalis, an only child from rural Connemara, sweeps and soars with her imagination. Nothing seems too mundane or outlandish for Hannah. Lying 'pretend dead' in bogs with her best fr...

Writers Peter McGann & John Morton have let loose The Roaring Banshees, part two of their Ripping Yarn Trilogy. The trilogy celebrates the centenary years of Ireland's independence. Part one: The Hellfire Squad successfully premiered in 2016 and told the tale of Micheal Collins' assassins. They are ...

Through the lens of three generations of a Dublin family, Dylan Coburn Gray's ambitious Citysong unfolds on a single day – but ricochets between past and present – to track the momentous and the minute changes in the lives of its characters who are, ultimately, just “a pinch in the hourglass�...

One of the highlights of Dublin's bustling summer calendar is the Festival of Curiosity, an annual international festival celebrating 4 days of science, art, design, and technology. This year one of the gems amongst the 32 events is the tender and cerebral play currently running at the Smock Alle...

As a dinner party haunted by absences draws to a close, Morkan, the evening's irrepressible host, stumbles to a confession. “It's just that life has felt so wobbly,” she says, pointedly avoiding eye contact with any of her guests. “I feel dislocated...exiled...and I'm not sure why... and maybe...

Much like stepping into a pair of comfortable slippers, two amiable aul Irish gents meet regularly at their local watering hole. Each armed with a pint, they follow the same ritual (in no particular order): grumbling, swapping accounts of life events, discussing current affairs, daydreaming, counsel...

Who would have thunk a sociable gathering of inquisitive neighbours would turn into such a rollicking free-for-all? One million Green Shield stamps. Fifteen delightful characters. A single winner - Ger Lawless. Fourteen family members & neighbours to help her paste the stamps in booklets to claim...

Writer Dylan Coburn Gray, a keen and compassionate observer of human nature has created in Citysong a compelling narrative of a multigenerational family featuring pivotal moments in their lives. In 90 minutes he captures our imagination with dozens of joyous, tender and intimate family interludes. ...

Deliciously inappropriate, scandalously funny and mischievously provocative, 16 years after its inception, Avenue Q continues to astound and delight. Inspired by Jim Henson's beloved Muppets, co-creators Jeff Maxx and Bobby Lopez fashioned their quirky and endearing creations on themselves, their...

Tennessee Williams in his essay 'The Catastrophe of Success' paints a poignant picture of his life following the startling success of his play The Glass Menagerie. He confides: “I was not aware of how much vital energy had gone into this struggle until the struggle was removed.” Seven decades la...

In this THEATREclub & Abbey co-production, 13 disgruntled millennials are intent on single-handedly annihilating capitalism. The set is the Absent Factory, a dystopian simulation of a Foxconn iPhone factory complete with production line and fuschia-lit control room. A motley crew of random homeless ...

I was prepared for controversial and shocking, for colourful language and violence. Yet the opening scene still had me reeling. Writer David Ireland clearly thrives on the taboo and no person or subject is immune. A seemingly innocuous setting: the director's lounge. On the eve of rehearsals for ...

The Complex warehouse in Smithfield, frigid, starkly lit and rigged with tenement flats at opposing ends with the audience seated on the long axes sandwiching the stage. We are shivering despite the generously provided blankets. As the harrowing stories unravel the temperature plummets further. Writ...