Author: The Reviews Hub - Ireland

Writer: Nicholas Makin Director: Kathleen Warner Yeates “This is a nice quiet little parish, nothing untoward going on here”, except the sexual revolution taking place among the women of the parish. The Devil and the Durex is a humorous exploration of the sexual awakening in one Irish town in the 1970s.  It opens with Tom (Richard Sweetman) and Paddy (Simon Cunningham) talking at the back of the church while passively taking part in the ritual of the ongoing mass. They are discussing Tom’s wife Sheila (Carmel Stephens) and her recent sexual awakening. Caused by the TV in Moloney’s pub and…

Writer: Pauline Goldsmith Director: Muireann Kelly I attended a wake last night, a quintessentially Irish one, held in a chintzy sitting room/parlour featuring overstuffed sofas wearing antimacassars, floral-patterned curtains, and a highly polished coffin centre-stage on a raised dais. We (the audience) shuffled in a queue to greet and sympathise with the daughter of the man who had died, exchanging classic condolences as she proffered sandwiches, tea, or a drop of whiskey. We then assumed our traditional audience seating as Brídín Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh dives into the first character of her one-woman show (a funeral director), featuring a hilarious deconstruction of…

Writer: Johnnie McNamra Walker Director: Byron LaViolette In the European premiere of his solo show, Johnnie McNamara Walker plays Iggy Beamish. An officially licensed celebrant, Iggy is just barely getting by couch surfing and living from gig to gig. Iggy is a bit of a disaster from being forced to take a job as a DJ (despite knowing nothing about it) to taking a room in a place called Sketch House. We see him constantly try to improve his circumstances while dealing with his own feelings about marriage and divorce.  Walker switches between multiple characters throughout the show including Iggy’s…

Director: Philip Connaughton & Luca Truffarelli Choreographer: Philip Connaughton  Music: Mel Mercier A stunning celebration of dance, A Rebellious Hope, aims to answer the question ‘Why do I still do this?’. Why still dance when your body is older and not as agile, or you struggle financially because dancing doesn’t provide enough of an income. We open on a dark screen and the voice of director and choreographer, Philip Connaughton, asking himself that very question. Despite one brief flash, at the very end, we then don’t see or hear him for the rest of the film. He hands it over…

Writer & Director: Simon Hennessy After a successful run at the Edinburgh and Dublin Fringes in 2024, Simon Hennessy is bringing Notice Box on a short Irish tour, premiering in the Pearse Centre in Dublin. The solo show, his second, presents an hour long exploration of society’s relationship with smartphones, via Hennessy’s relationship with his own. It’s an interesting direction to take, certainly because it’s something worth exploring, but perhaps more because of the demographic of the audience; Hennessy is currently best known as an internet comedian, primarily successful thanks to short video sketches posted on TikTok and Instagram, and…

Writer: Emmet Hamilton-Reynolds Director: John O’Hare An interesting concept, Hold me Away from the Sun, is essentially a mental health crisis on stage. 17 year old poetry lover Joe, is filled with anxiety, struggling with his identity and uses his fictional big sister, Jane, as a coping mechanism. When he sleeps, he sees Jane. She is his confidante and advisor. She is there every night in his dreams to help him reconcile the events of the day and to rescue him when he needs it.  There is very little plot and some of what is there is unrealistic, particularly the…

Writer & Director: Morghan Welt Thought provoking and provocative, But We’re Right aims to explore the growing right wing sentiment in Ireland and further afield. Presented by Bad Things Theatre and based around two friends in what could be any town in Ireland, we watch as the characters’ circumstances shift them further and further to the right. It starts with the fear of ‘bus loads’ of men coming to the town, then moves to the fear of being replaced in jobs and housing. This play is an incredibly effectual portrayal of how fear and circumstance can push people from their…

Writer: Carys D. Coburn  Director: Claire O’Reilly All aboard for MALAPROP Theatre Company’s sensational voyage to the Arctic Circle on the Crystal Prophecy Cruise Ship. Navigated by their fabulously flamboyant Captain, the passengers will “bid farewell to the ice”, even though “most of it is already gone”. The ensemble cast launch head first into spectacular opening scenes worthy of London’s West End. Peter Conroy’s “extravagantly homosexual” Captain and narrator is reminiscent of Baz Luhrman’s Master of Ceremonies ‘Harold Zidler’ in the film Moulin Rouge, as he introduces a series of acts featuring the all singing and dancing “Showbirds”. Throughout the…