IRELAND THEATER REVIEWS

Formerly banned by the Irish censorship board in 1950's Ireland, The Country Girls tells the tale of love in all its incarnations: unconditional, dutiful, compassionate, possessive, devoted, illicit, unrequited, first love. Two fiercely smart young girls have their delicate bonds cemented during ...

The comforting cacophony of blaring sirens. A kaleidoscope of scents: sweet and foul. The perpetual surge of humanity. All the things I love most about New York City. Into the melee, in a neighborhood coffee shop, a love triangle unfolds. Carrie O'Keefe (Sorcha Fenlon), a budding young Irish arti...

Never underestimate the power of our youth. In this case the united voice of 7 exceptional high-school girls: Amal Azuddin, Emma Clifford, Jennifer McCarron, Agnesa Murselaj, Roza Salih, Ewelina Siwak and Toni-Lee Henderson, aka: The Glasgow Girls. This is an enjoyable musical about teen activist...

Have you ever pondered over a shocking news story and thought: what possibly could have possessed that individual to behave in that erratic manner? Philip Ridley tackles that question not once but twice in his 2 plays: Tonight with Donny Stixx and Dark Vanilla Jungle. Playwright, Philip Ridley h...

Imagine your absolute favorite story. Swap the protagonist for a bicycle-averse sergeant, an amiable but soused philosopher, a fellow tippler a few shillings short of a pound and a publican with a brain that should be pickled for posterity. Scour the stage for 4 exceptional Irish actors to narrat...

On September 11th 2001, whilst unimaginable horrors were unfolding on one island, on another island 1500 miles NE, an entire village rallied together opening their hearts and homes to help 7000 strangers. Amongst the countless stories of bravery, sacrifice, resilience and camaraderie across the glob...

A volatile cocktail: World War 2. Stormy politics. Nationalism. Fascism. Power. Propaganda. High treason. Playwright, Thomas Kilroy's illuminating script spotlights two Irishmen, both influential political wrestlers and unintentional opponents in the WW2 arena....

Theater heaven. A rare occurrence when every component of a production converges in perfect harmony to create a tour de force. Druid Theatre Company have accomplished this with their current production of Richard III. Adding pizzazz, Opening Night was attended by a fine complement of glitterati from...

Writer and actress Gina Moxley stumbled upon the 1965 film Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (aka The Gloria Films) whilst residing in New York City. Set in the USA, the documentary-turned-movie centers around Gloria Szymanski a 30 year-old discontent divorcee who is filmed receiving distinctly diff...

Strap yourself in for a high octane ride from the mini metropolis of Prospect, Galway to the bright lights of the Eurovision Song Contest and back again with Fionn Foley's uproarious one-man farce. Foley plays Brendan Galileo, an earnest and ambitious young man who tries his hand in local politics w...

Writer Michael West artfully distills the dark essence of Mary Shelley's classic into a fateful 70 minutes, gratifying literary scholars and beguiling newcomers. I imagine Director Muireann Ahern enjoyed collaborating with her colleague, Louis Lovett, to unsettle and bewitch the audience. (Ahearn & ...

Jimmy's Hall is based on the true story of a tin barn built on a farm in Leitrim by Jimmy Gralton in the 1920s. His vision of a haven for the local community to congregate for music, dance and lively discourse is perceived as a menace by the local establishment, including the Catholic Church, then a...

Come on Home is a quintessentially Irish tale exploring the fragile yet resilient bonds of family against a backdrop of sexual intolerance, rejection and regret. Playwright Philip McMahon's new narrative dredges the murky waters of small-town Irish prejudice and presents it compassionately without b...

'Furniture is not sentimental,' offers George, despairing at his difficulty in bequeathing his beloved chaise longue to a willing beneficiary, near the close of Sonya Kelly's scintillating new play Furniture. 'You can love it, but it won't remember who you are.'...

Cristín Kehoe's Shelter attempts to negotiate the knotty relationship between Ireland's turbulent past and uneasy present....

On Thursday, June 16th, 1904 a young man and his new belle spent their first day together wandering the streets of Dublin. The experience had such a profound impact on him that over the following 2 decades he commemorated the milestone by writing a fictional account about the lives of a group of Dub...

Pan Pan Theatre Company presents the 10th incarnation of The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane since its premiere at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2010. Director, Gavin Quinn wields his poetic license to challenge and stimulate his audience in this experimental production....

“'Moving on' is for stupid people,” insists the haunted, just-bereaved Dad (Cillian Murphy) in the world premiere of Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Enda Walsh's ambitions, striking, but unsatisfactory stage adaptation of Max Porter's 2016 novel....

This much hyped and widely advertised production incorporated a lot of elements and took a lot of risks, while some worked not all panned out, leaving the play inconsistent in tone and style....

It's a tale as old as time, or certainly as old as any fairy tale, but Smock Alley Theatre's production The Grimm Tale of Cinderella manages to put a fresh spin on an old reliable, masterfully knowing where to pay homage to sanctified tradition and where to shake things up, so to speak....

A stark exploration of inheritance, home, and the legacy of Ireland's post-Famine mindset, Eugene McCabe's unsettling, overlooked King of the Castle is imaginatively revived in Druid Theatre's production....

With sparkling assurance, Abbie Spallen's Pumpgirl splices comedy and tragedy....

In a dystopian landscape charged with searing verbal aggression, sustained horror, and gratuitous violence, Crestfall unfolds on the day when the lives of Olive, Alison, and Tilly fatefully intersect.  ...

In a contemporary re-imagining of the classic Lewis Carrol tale, Wonderland is Frank Wildhorn's new musical, currently touring venues around the UK until August. Originally produced in the US, then debuting at the Edinburgh Playhouse in January of this year, Wildhorn's new musical follows Alice, a s...

“Nothing happens,” thunders Estragon, “nobody comes, nobody goes – it's awful!” We are, of course, in the existential nowhere of Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett's modern masterpiece, which flings metaphysical anguish up against slapstick comedy....