Stephen Rea: ‘I can’t imagine teams of loyalists rolling up to watch it’Stephen Rea stars as a paranoid loyalist in ‘Cyprus Avenue’ at the AbbeySat Feb 06 2016 - 03:45
The Poor Little Boy With No Arms review: A bright ensemble and a heart of darknessSkibberceannaigh has many dark secrets; unearthing them proves trickier than imaginedMon Feb 01 2016 - 12:21
Ten things we learned at the Theatre of Change SymposiumTackling malevolent cupcakes, mutant lesbians and “the man problem” at the AbbeySat Jan 30 2016 - 01:00
Creditors review: A paranoid play that works like a chauvinist’s nightmareDavid Greig’s version of August Strindberg’s play is luridly unhinged, but this odd production opts to play it seriouslyFri Jan 29 2016 - 12:36
David Greig: ‘I had to somehow become Strindberg’The Scottish playwright has tackled topics as troubling as Anders Behring Breivik. So how did he get on in the strange world of Strindberg?Mon Jan 25 2016 - 01:06
Culture Shock: When artists are faced with the end, how do they respond?It’s tempting to read ‘Blackstar’ as David Bowie’s swansong. But he was already writing his next albumFri Jan 22 2016 - 16:00
Abbey’s Theatre of Change opens with the body politicThe three-day conference launches the theatre’s Waking the Nation programmeThu Jan 21 2016 - 18:53
How we picked the shortlist for the ‘Irish Times’ Irish Theatre Awards 2015As the three judges meet to consider the productions they’ve seen in the past year, ‘violent agreement’ breaks outSat Jan 16 2016 - 05:00
Review: Charles Haughey comes back for The DeadJames Joyce’s peerless short story is given a reading by Aidan Gillen in which his Gabriel Conroy is given a cruel and familiar formThu Jan 07 2016 - 16:59
Peter Crawley’s 2015: Gender and history get a stunning makeoverFrom DruidShakespeare to Waking the Feminists, 2015 was all about changing perspectivesSat Dec 19 2015 - 05:00
Culture Shock: Wilde about Shaw, Shaw Gone WildeWilde and Shaw, who have similar plays on at the Gate and Abbey, had a prickly relationshipFri Dec 11 2015 - 16:00
Review – The Dead: Joyce’s short story gets a chamber opera formJames Joyce’s story gets a sonorous treatment, but can anything be more musical than his prose?Fri Dec 11 2015 - 12:30
James Joyce brought to life with the music of The DeadThe last story in The Dubliners is already full of song, but opera proved to be a great way of bringing out the ‘internal arias’ in characters’ headsThu Dec 10 2015 - 06:00
Review – You Never Can Tell: Excuses are hard to make for Shaw’s problematic playThe troubling aspects of Bernard Shaw’s dusty play are here hammered at with forced jollity – the result is not weightless funWed Dec 09 2015 - 14:51
Snake Eaters review: A soldier’s story gets lost in clicheAmong the three or so plays struggling to get out, an interesting human story is lostWed Dec 09 2015 - 13:55
Enjoy review: stark and strange, arresting and infuriatingToshiki Okada’s drifting 2006 play offers a fascinating description of a generation caught between recession and recoveryFri Dec 04 2015 - 12:09
The Importance of Being Earnest review: Wilde wins againAs his parade of double lives spills out of the closet, Oscar Wilde peers down on a production that is almost entirely at his serviceWed Dec 02 2015 - 13:40
Culture shock: Is it really so hard to write about women?From the male gaze to the female voice, it’s time to make a changeFri Nov 27 2015 - 15:10
Review – Lord of the Flies: A world at war, and a rage withinWilliam Golding’s tale gets a cosmetic update, and drags its colonial baggage with itWed Nov 25 2015 - 17:46
‘The voices in our own heads’ – 20 years of Corn ExchangeFor its anniversary production, director Annie Ryan settled on a stark Ingmar Bergman drama that does nothing to change the impression of the company as being hard to pin downWed Nov 25 2015 - 06:00
Review – The Unlucky Cabin Boy: A grisly tale well servedHow do you root for an underdog when he is destined to be eaten by the rest of the characters?Thu Nov 19 2015 - 16:46
Through a Glass Darkly review: Bergman’s tale in an unspecific IrelandTrapped in a holiday created by Ingmar Bergman that’s given ghostly life on stage, can Beth Cooke’s Karin escape?Tue Nov 17 2015 - 17:46
Stacey Gregg on gender, identity and the theatre’s ‘gutting lack of women’The Belfast playwright’s latest work, Scorch, has plenty to say about the complex nature of modern gender identity, and she’s not shy about expressing views on the National Theatre’s imbalance eitherThu Nov 12 2015 - 06:00
Declan Conlon: ‘There’s not much pleasure in playing people who are content’The actor likes to find the conflict in characters, making Tom Murphy’s plays ideal vehicles for his talentsMon Nov 09 2015 - 01:00
Review – Foxy: Fact and fiction in the land of the marginalisedIs gingerism light-hearted fun, or the seeds of a more malevolent prejudice?Thu Nov 05 2015 - 01:00
Culture Shock: The voices that aren’t being heard in the arts speak volumesIn Ireland, North and South, wordlessness and absences have a deeper meaningSat Oct 31 2015 - 09:26
Tales from the Woods review: Horror stories that get lost in the fogThe challenge of this Halloween entertainment is to splice fairy tales into horror stories in pursuit of sincere scaresFri Oct 30 2015 - 14:45
Abbey Theatre to ‘interrogate rather than celebrate’ Easter RisingWaking the Nation programme to mark 1916 centenary has three world premieresWed Oct 28 2015 - 15:00
Review – Mydidae: Intimacy has its limitsCan a couple who share their bathroom routine keep anything hidden from each other?Tue Oct 27 2015 - 12:47
Review – Hallo: The accidents waiting to happenThe title of consummate Swiss clown Martin Zimmermann’s new show is a breezy salute. But is his sometimes sour persona really seeking a connection?Tue Oct 27 2015 - 12:43
To Break review: A strange world made out of rough materialsA surreal and winding visual trip from a young Belgian theatre companyFri Oct 23 2015 - 16:44
Review – The Kitchen: Sizzle and spice and all things riceOver the ceremonial preparation of a South Indian dessert, a husband and wife and 12 drummers can all stand the heatFri Oct 23 2015 - 14:43
Review | Are You There Garth? It’s Me, Margaret: Brooks fans have suffered enough without this witless ‘comedy’What starts out as a lame script turns desperate and then ugly, and all for the love of GarthFri Oct 23 2015 - 14:25
DTF Review | Shibboleth: Examining the walls that run through Northern Irish headsBelfast’s Peace Walls, like shibboleths, are designed to keep people separated. But Stacey Gregg’s restless new play constructs them as an inhibiting prisonThu Oct 08 2015 - 13:56
DTF Review | The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: Don’t expect a fairytale endingTheatre Lovett’s sinister new version of the fairy tale leads the original very far from home. Has it also lost its trail?Thu Oct 08 2015 - 11:12
Brian Friel: Seven key playsFrom Philadelphia Here I Come! to The Home Place, Peter Crawley selects Friel’s finestSat Oct 03 2015 - 04:00
Playing God: the perks of the play-writing jobThree plays in the Dublin Theatre Festival attempt to capture the mess of modern lifeFri Oct 02 2015 - 15:00
DTF review | Corps Diplomatique: a good gag that takes light years to landWhat happens when you send an amateur theatrical collective into space for several hundred thousand years? Not a lot, apparentlyFri Oct 02 2015 - 13:09
DTF Review | Oedipus: A blindingly obvious fate, in a crystal clear productionThe riddle in Wayne Jordan’s limpid new version of the Greek tragedy is how anyone stays blind to the truthThu Oct 01 2015 - 14:28
DTF Review | Clôture de l’amour: Two lovers face mutually assured destructionLess a depiction of a break up than a scene of mutually assured destruction, why does Pascal Rambert’s play feel so bloodless?Tue Sept 29 2015 - 14:47
DTF Review | At the Ford: Faced with a bailout, what would Chulainn and Ferdia do?Recent history and ancient myth conspire to give a blow-by-blow account of the humbling of a nationTue Sept 29 2015 - 10:21
DTF review | Newcastlewest: A world without consequence that refuses to make senseThrough chance operations and onstage manipulation, Dick Walsh’s new play for Pan Pan makes random sense of the worldMon Sept 28 2015 - 16:41
Simon Stephens: Curious incidents, inventions and liesCan a main character who resists emotion and metaphor survive on stage? Simon Stephens takes on the challenge in his adaptation of ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’Sat Sept 26 2015 - 09:00
DTF Review |The Night Alive: A comedy of desperation, in the gritty sanctuary of a Dublin flatAbandoned by their creator and alone in a random world, the characters in Conor McPherson’s new play have more questions than answersFri Sept 25 2015 - 11:29
Staging the unstageable: Dead Centre take on Chekhov’s chaotic first playThe pioneering theatre company is taking an aggressive approach to Chekhov’s sprawling, untitled play and has even introduced a live director’s commentary – can it be tamed?Wed Sept 23 2015 - 06:00
We Are All in the Gutter, But Some of Us Are Looking at David O’Doherty Review | Tiger Dublin FringeWhatever trials come his way, the inspiringly shaggy comedian retains his defiant moodFri Sept 18 2015 - 16:30
You’re Not Alone review: An obsessive and uncomfortably riveting show| Tiger Dublin FringeFlights of absurd fancy, driven by lonely despairThu Sept 17 2015 - 18:03
Obscene gestures: can a theatre show ever go too far?Offence is in the eye of the beholder, but Irish theatre has a robust reputation for pushing boundaries, and many theatres and companies have suffered for their artistic freedomWed Sept 16 2015 - 18:37
Ghosts review: Obscenity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder in this act of onstage intimacy | Tiger Dublin FringePlay still feels like a work in progress, as does any relationshipWed Sept 16 2015 - 17:44
