Director: Graham Watts Court was in session in Vicar Street Dublin for the murder trial of Dale Irvine. Accused of killing his wife Meg, his trial is played out in front of a live audience who become the jury. Strobe lights, dramatic music and a flashing justice symbol kick off the show followed by a video outlining the circumstances of the case. It is, very much, a show. Leaning heavily into entertainment rather than realism, understandably maybe, but possibly disappointing to anyone attending for a more realistic experience. Particularly with true crime being as popular as it is nowadays. The…
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: Felix Brown Director: Michael James Forde Friends in Berlin, written and performed by Felix Brown, tells the fascinating story of William Patrick Hitler, the son of Hitler’s half-brother, Alois, and his Irish wife, Bridget Dowling. The couple met while Alois was working in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. William Patrick visits Berlin as an adult and discovers his unknown German relatives, including his uncle Adolph, and therein lies the dramatic tension waiting in the background to unfold. As a writer and actor, Felix Brown shapes all the elements of suspense, complication, climax, and resolution in this fifty-five-minute piece. The…
Writer: Rachel Huggins On a sunny Friday morning, a little bit of magic kicked off the day’s events at the 2025 International Literature Festival Dublin. Meet our Friends the Dragons is an abridged version of two larger shows by Dragon Song Productions, The Moon Dragon and The Sea Dragon. Bertie the Moon Dragon is responsible for raising the moon into the sky but when he falls asleep one night, he needs help from a colourful cast of characters and the audience to get him back to work. In The Sea Dragon, the colours from the coral reef have mysteriously faded.…
Writer, Director, & Choreographer: Oona Doherty From the brilliant mind of Oona Doherty comes Specky Clark. A fictionalised version of her great great grandfather’s life after his mother dies and he is sent to live with the Clarks in Belfast. Doherty’s script is funny and poignant, weaved throughout with local legends such as the fairy twins and the fastest pig. The voice of the narrator is friendly and inviting as he guides us through the tale of Edward James Doherty, later renamed Specky. The show opens with a body dropping to the floor and a young boy, Edward, screaming. Immediately…
Choreographer: Liz Roche, Mufutau Yusef, Maria Campos & Guy Nader Music: Irish Chamber Orchestra Kicking off in the Dublin dance festival in spectacular fashion is Chora. The premiere performance from Luail, Ireland’s newly established National Dance Company, Chora is a triple bill of new dance works. The Irish Chamber Orchestra accompanies each piece from a raised platform behind the dancers. The first piece is called Invocation, choreographed by one of Luail’s choreographers in residence Mufutau Yusef. In a dark and gloomy atmosphere, expertly created by stage and costume designer Katie Davenport, we first see our dancers. Shrouded in black clothing,…
Writer: Lee Coffey Director: Ian Toner The intimate and inviting space of Glass Mask Theatre at The Bestseller Café breaks down all barriers between the actors and their audience. From the outset of Lee Coffey’s impactful play Jigsaw, we are immersed in the tragic life of ‘Jim’ who exists in a homeless microcosm of stress, exposure and uncertainty on the streets of Dublin. “That’s all that counts…today.” Performances by Alan Devine and Craig Connolly are both vivid and spellbinding. We are right there with Jim as “Ger, the manipulator” sneers at him for sleeping “in a mouldy sleeping bag and…
Writer & Director: Ezra Maloney Two hospital beds divided by a screen provide the focal point of the stage as Pre-Ops begins. Two bodies lie on the beds, both in identical hospital garb and both we learn are awaiting hysterectomy surgery; here the similarities end, or do they? Fiachra (Ianto Lynch), a transgender man, is the more vocal of the two initially, making conversational advances to the woman behind the screen. Helen (Molly Whelan) is surprised to hear a man’s voice in this space and does not welcome Fiachra’s initiative; she immediately makes assumptions about Fiachra’s life choices, proudly declaring…
Devised by: Cian Austin Jesus Cian Austin Jesus (AKA Cian Kinsella) announced at the finish of his one man show, playing at the Galway Theatre Festival, that the piece is still a work in progress, something this reviewer was unaware of. It is possibly unfair to review the piece given this information – and the fact that it runs for just fifty minutes at the moment – but bearing this in mind when writing (and reading) the review, it seems reasonable to describe the experience and acknowledge the very real potential apparent in this show about the most macho man…