Author: The Reviews Hub - Ireland

Writer: Kyron Bourke Director: Rhiann Jeffrey Kyron Bourke and Teatro Nua create an absolutely entrancing atmosphere in the Boys’ School at Smock Alley Theatre with No Citation. Upon entering the space the audience is treated to Bourke on the keys with the lights low and the feel of an intimate piano bar, but it’s the use of this eclectic space with the trumpet player and drummer in the stone wall alcove windows and Maeve Smyth traipsing along the walkways raining judgement on our piano man that sets a truly spellbinding scene and opens the piece. No Citation is the last…

Writer: Rex Ryan Director: Ian Tolan Back in the wonderful Glass Mask Theatre at the Bestseller Café on Dawson Street for Rex Ryan’s nattily titled, The Dole Wide World. You might presume this play speaks to the challenges and vagaries of life for the unemployed. It does not. Instead, we bear witness to the psychotic episode of a troubled young mother and the attempts made by a flawed psychiatrist to resolve an explosive situation.   Tara Cush has returned her character Vivienne to the Intreo Centre on Parnell Street where she had worked two years previously. She stands on one side…

Writer & Director: Áine Ryan Life is made of Joy and Woe And once this we surely know Forward through the World we go. The above quote from a poem by William Blake sums up this wonderful One Act Play Paddy Goes to Petra written and directed by Áine Ryan who manages to tenderly assimilate all the layers of parental  grief and loss. A middle aged Irish farmer and his wife Áilis travel to the Middle East after the death of their only son Killian. The setting of the piece takes place in Petra where Paddy befriends Bedouins living there.…

Writer: Peter Dunne Director: Ursula McGinn Peter Dunne brings family friendly fright to the Axis just in time for Halloween with The Haunting of Gusty Nook: a ghostly comedy with a meaningful message hidden within that’s sure to entertain children and adults alike this Bank Holiday weekend. Caitríona Williams plays Belinda, a 13-year-old Gusty Nook native with a secret power, who is on a mission to rid her town of the monsters that plague it, as well as hopefully make a few friends along the way. Donnacha O’Dea and Margaret McAuliffe join Williams as the various other inhabitants of the…

Choreographer: Mufuatu Yusuf A towering pile of luggage, with what looks like streaming African banners attached, sits on the open stage. To the rhythmic sound of indigenous drums and cymbals the colourful construct rises and proceeds to sway and sashay to the beat. It is as original an opening to a show as I have ever seen. The cases suggest a journey. Though raised in Ireland, choreographer and performer, Mufuatu Yusuf, hails from Nigeria so we begin there. The lights dim and a crescendo of stormy music introduces Yusuf and Lucas Katangila. They face back towards the pale cyclorama, appearing…

Writer and Director: Robert Power  This year’s Dublin Fringe Festival saw the theatrical debut of A Version of Life, a play by Irish  playwright, musician and multi-media artist Robert Power. The production ran from September 12-14th at University College Dublin’s Trapdoor Theatre, presented by the Creative Futures Academy.   Running at just 60 minutes, A Version of Life is a medium-blending, one-man show which spotlights a  version of Robert Power, played by the real Robert Power, presenting what the creator himself describes  as, “An alternate version of a life, or a lived experience, or a lived reality, or more of a…

Writer: Lorca, Adapted by Patrick J. O’Reilly Director: Patrick J. O’Reilly The retelling of Lorca’s Yerma by Tinderbox Theatre Company at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, adapted by the director Patrick J. O’Reilly manages to incorporate the essential themes in the original play written in 1934: love, longing and loss. Yerma means a younger woman who is childless. Caoimhe Farren in the title role captures the heart breaking and tragic elements of a woman trapped in a childless marriage, who  continues to suffer the social torment of societal expectations. The central issue is about infertility and repression of the reproductive system.…

Writer: Ross Dungan Director: Sara Joyce Alan, a young man working in content moderation, is troubled by a misjudged comment he made to his co-worker Alannah when she discovered a video of her brother’s suicide at work. Their work lives consist of sifting through images of mangled body parts, racist content and spam. Aidan Moriarty gives a standout performance as the obnoxious supervisor, his character is written perfectly – we’ve all known one just like him. Alan and Alannah are a mismatched pair (the dynamic of acerbic woman with sweet man who accepts the abuse from her is grating) who…