Author: 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: James Joyce Directors: Jim Riche and Liam Hourican This evocative lunch time play is a rare theatrical delight that is captivating throughout. The work as part of the Bloomsday festival, is a dramatization of two short stories from James Joyce’s debut collection, Dubliners first published in 1914, when he was only in his twenties. Through literary realism in the interconnecting stories in Dubliners, Joyce presents an insight into early twentieth century Dublin society, its struggles, mundanity and the ‘quiet desperation’ of everyday lives. Dubliners remains to this day, a masterpiece of modernist literature.   Liam Hourican and Jim Roche are…

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Fresh from the success of her highly acclaimed show, How to Get The Menopause and Enjoy It, writer, performer and member of musical comedy trio The Nualas, Anne Gildea speaks to The Reviews Hub about its equally hilarious follow-up, Further Adventures in WOMANING’.    We’re meeting at the Two Pups Café on Francis Street, a vibrant thoroughfare full of antique shops in Dublin’s Liberties near to where Gildea lives with her partner, the producer, film director and writer, Paul Farren.   Although the entertainer is five months into her tour, she relates how Further Adventures in WOMANING continues to be a work…

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Writer: Anne Gildea Director: Paul Farren There is an excited buzz in the theatre at the Solstice Arts Centre as we take our seats. It’s Saturday evening and everyone is in good form and looking forward to Anne Gildea’s new show, Further Adventures in WOMANING. Given the snatches of conversation overheard from the groups of women present, it appears that most have seen the show’s precursor, How To Get the Menopause and Enjoy it and loved it. “The one and possibly only” Anne Gildea arrives on stage to loud applause and the strains of Joe Dolan’s “You’re such a good…

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Starring: Kathy Nugent   Kathy Nugent ignites the stage in a one-night-only variety performance Best of Broadway, presented in the main space of the dlr Mill Theatre, Dundrum. A celebrated Dublin-born performer with international credits including Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Monte Carlo, Spain, the US, and France, Nugent returns home for a momentous two-hour cabaret experience.  The performance featured not only Broadway classics—from Cabaret, Carousel, Les Misérables, and Funny Girl—but also songs from the screen, including Eurovision hits and iconic Bond anthems. As the audience entered, the stage was vibrantly lit, revealing a simple yet effective setup: keys, drums, and…

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Book & Lyrics: Joe Dipietro Music: Jimmy Roberts Director: Mary MacDonagh A young cast full of potential took to The Mill stage for American College Dublin’s production of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. First premiered in 1995, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change is a series of short musical vignettes on modern heterosexual dating, marriage, and family life. As the show starts, the band walks out on stage to seat themselves on raised platforms behind the main performance area. The stage is then plunged into darkness and the 4 person cast enters dressed all in black and…

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Writer & Director: Rachel Ní Bhraonáin  Choreographer: Robyn Byrne “A mosh pit: an area in front of the stage at a rock concert, where people dance in a violent manner involving jumping up and down and deliberately colliding with others.”  To the unaware:, a mosh pit might look terrifying—an arena of chaos, aggression, and danger. But in MOSH, this small community of five dancers reveal something far deeper: a euphoric act of unity. Through movement, storytelling, and sheer physicality, they break down the science of a mosh pit and uncover a system of respect, catharsis, and connection.  After an award-winning…

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Director & Choreographer: Matthew Bourne Composer: Peter Tchaikovsky Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake is gracing Dublin stages again for the first time since 2019 as a part of the Dublin Dance Festival 2025. First staged in 1995 in London, Bourne’s version of the classic ballet by Tchaikovsky is best known for having the traditionally female parts of the swans danced by men. Bourne’s contemporary story sees the prince searching for his inner self despite a domineering mother and the pressures that come with royal life. An accessible introduction to ballet for the masses, Bourne uses both classical ballet and other styles…

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Writer, Choreographer & Director: Luke Murphy Dublin’s Abbey Theatre plays host tonight to Dublin Dance Festival’s Artist in Residence, Luke Murphy’s latest production, Scorched Earth. Under the auspices of his multidisciplinary company, Attic Projects, he presents a contemporary mash-up of John B Keane’s play The Field via an expanse of mediums. In a Garda interview room, the two way mirror on the wall behind a desk and chair becomes a film screen. Snapshots of a field followed by a series of sepia-tinged newspaper articles outlining the violent repercussions of various land-based disputes across the length and breadth of Ireland, flash…

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