Writer: Simon Stephens Director: Rex Ryan Glass Mask Theatre’s new play is A Slow Fire by Simon Stephens, whose A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time starts at Smock Alley next week. This is Stephens’ original work, indeed this production is its world premiere, and it’s testament to Glass Mask’s sway that they can attract such a high-profile author to the back of the Bestseller Café on Dawson Street. Directed by Rex Ryan, the play has some significant peaks, but also flaws that can outweigh the vitality and coherence of its narrative. Ashton (Ross Gaynor) and Reece (Ian…
Author: The Reviews Hub - Ireland
The Reviews Hub - Ireland
The Ireland team is currently under the editorship of Laura Marriott. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.
Writer: Padraig Dooney Director: Giles Brody Teatro Nua is back in the Boy’s School this January with Padraig Dooney’s hilarious Please Hold. Developed in the same space during the Scene + Heard Festival in 2025, Please Hold is Dooney’s first one-man show, and it’s a very strong piece of theatre; full of energy, comedy, and beautiful original live music. The premise is thoroughly bizarre; a young man makes his money playing live hold music down the line for people waiting to be connected with their service or business of choice. When reading this description one would be forgiven for having…
Book: Alain Boublil & Claude-Michael Schönberg Music: Claude-Michael Schönberg Lyrics: Alain Boublil & Richard Maltby. Jr Director: Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy A true juggernaut of a musical, Miss Saigon has been performed in more than 25 countries around the world since it premiered in London in 1989. This new production by Michael Harrison Entertainment in association with Cameron Mackintosh uses the tagline ‘The Legend Reborn’ and it truly is. The show follows the same plot, but has been given a fresh look and has had some of the more problematic language updated. The changes are unlikely to upset fans of…
Creator: James Hosty Before the audience were welcomed into the Cube Theatre at Dublin’s Project Arts Centre for the performance, we were given a brief background about The Heart Room Experience. It is a production that needs an intimate, enclosed setting. Therefore there are about twenty audience members and we hear how it was previously performed in hospitals and public corridors. Creator James Hosty is part facilitator, part sharer / performer. The first half is a curious mix of dance, music, and a version of show and tell on a projector; James shares items from his life with the audience.…
Writer: Michael Hilliard Mulcahy Director: Padraic McIntyre “He eventually told me what he saw on the mountain road that night…” Along with their performances in the sold-out run of Joyce’s The Dead at the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), John Cronin and Roseanna Purcell hold you spellbound in this two-hander lunchtime performance of Robin and Dawn. Robin and Dawn is about a couple suffering through family bereavement leading to cracks in their marriage. These gauge deeper after Robin experiences a brain altering vision of sorts one night. The pair engage in solo spiritual quests, aided by narrative monologue, to seek out what…
Writer & Director: Geoff O’Keeffe A mesmerising family show, Hansel and Gretel at the Mill Theatre is everything you want a pantomime to be. It had jokes, audience participation, singing, dancing and the use of completely out of context popular songs. It’s a true delight beginning to end. Beginning with a fun duet between the two ‘bad guys’, Witch (Eimear Barr) and Stepmother (Gerry Mountaine) the show runs so smoothly and cleanly for its entire duration. The show is only 1 hour long, there is nothing overly loud, stunning or scary making it the perfect show for the full range…
Writer & Director: Jamie Sykes Dead Monks is a bizarre meandering caper about 3 monks’ journey through the afterlife. Starting with a skit where a crew member pretends to electrocute the audience and filled with tired jokes, cheap laughs and out of place choreography, Dead Monks is an interesting idea that is not particularly well executed. We’re introduced to three hapless monks who are struggling following the death of their beloved Abbot. Offo, the abbey’s resident chanter, Dungal, the manuscript writer and Kevin, the idiot. When a Viking ship on the horizon threatens their lives, they begin fighting over who…
Writer: Sheena Lambert Director: Rex Ryan Bewley’s Café Theatre is fizzing with Christmas cheer this Tuesday lunchtime. Today’s show is sold out and we are happy to be warmly ensconced with coffee and hot chocolate while storm Bram whips up outside. Novelist, screenwriter and playwright, Sheena Lambert, first became aware of the extraordinary life-story of Cosima Wagner when she was studying music in the 80’s. Referred to as the daughter of the great Hungarian composer and pianist, Franz Liszt or as the wife of the radical German composer and conductor, Richard Wagner, Cosima’s own considerable musical ability was overlooked. Initially,…