Author: The Reviews Hub - Ireland

Writer: Eoghan Quinn, adapted from J.M. Coetzee Director: Annabelle Comyn Don’t be put off The Jesus Trilogy if you’ve never read the J.M. Coetzee novels from which it was adapted by Eoghan Quinn, alongside director Annabelle Comyn – this reviewer certainly hadn’t, and found much to appreciate in the work. While it is easy to understand why Eileen Battersby in The Irish Times wrote that the trilogy’s first instalment “as a novel, lacks cohesion and conviction”, the sprawling ambition of the play, the beautiful staging, and the robust, truthful performances combined to forge a rich, probing evening in the theatre.…

Writer: Gary Cooke Director: Bairbre Ní Chaoimh This month sees the stage in Bewley’s Café Theatre transformed into the office of Boggins’ Bathrooms showroom, a family run affair in the M50 Business Park. Gary Cooke of Après Match fame is a double threat as writer and star of this one-man show, playing the somewhat soured second son of the business-cum-part-time football manager of the under 12s local team, as well as a host of additional characters.  Over the course of the hour Billy Boggins tells the story of how he found himself on a frantic journey from his brother’s second…

Writer: Khawla Ibraheem Director: Oliver Butler A Knock on the Roof is a staggering one-woman work that radiates humanity, humour, and unbreakable resolve in every moment. The title comes from the name given to the Israeli Defence Force’s “warning bombs” that are dropped in Palestinian cities before the larger ones, and so being at a performance feels like hearing a testimony straight from a fresh bombsite. To assess the work of writer/performer Khawla Ibraheem, a Palestinian artist based in the occupied Golan Heights, on a solely artistic level feels almost perverse, but in some ways she seems to encourage this…

Writer: Jarlath Tivnan Director: Rex Ryan Currently running at The Glass Mask Theatre, The Acting is a high energy piece written by and starring Jarlath Tivnan. Tivnan has an impressive career behind him so far, both as a playwright and actor, with his writing debut Pleasure Ground winning the Michael Diskin Bursary Award and several standout performances under his belt, including last year’s King on the Glass Mask stage in Eva O’Connor’s Horse Play. The Acting certainly has an autobiographical feel to it as it tells the story of Charlie, a Boyle native trying to make it as an actor…

Writer: Kate Heffernan  Director: Eoghan Carrick No lights, no power, no set. Three ordinary people who live ordinary lives, stuck in spaces which are not theirs, where it feels they can leave no mark. Kate Heffernan’s new play is a bold attempt at staging the ‘normal’ in an abnormal way, concerning our need for connection and light, that sometimes feels trapped under the mundanity of jobs or relationships we aren’t passionate about. Space is cleverly used to suspend disbelief, taking place on the sets of other shows, lit dimly by laptop lights, deliveroo bags, phone lights, anything that you can…

Writer & Director: David Horan It is undeniably true that David Horan’s Sandpaper on Sunburn poses questions around identity, relationships, and the relationship of the personal to the political, although your feelings about the play will most likely rest in how believable you find the characters that pose the questions, and the extent to which you can tolerate the questions not being answered. Perhaps this is the role that theatre should play, that it shouldn’t be providing clear answers in two hours, but it’s impossible not to feel a nagging frustration that so much good work leaves the audience with so…

Writer: Dee Roycroft Director: Claire O’Reilly Amelia is set in a generally recognisable world, rural Ireland in the not-too-distant future after some unspecified ecological disaster – or, after a series of disasters, as the damage has been such that finding live birds is a rarity. Jan (Claire J Loy) bursts on stage, cradling a dying magpie; her brother, Davy (John Cronin) helps her attend to it, but there is a brutal, inevitable feeling to the bird’s death. They are then joined by Davy’s non-binary child, Enda (Bláithín Mac Gabhann), who is approaching the age of majority, is itching to see…

Writers: Morgan Savidan & Sasha Carberry Sharma Director: Ari Bhatti BEASTS is a play of shape-shifting, transformation and transcendence. When in the room, you feel transported into some kind of mythical realm – it’s infectious and a little haunting. That foreboding quality is impressively built upon as we progress through the play, encountering twists in the stories of Sita, Rama, Ravana, Hanuman and Kali. Two girls, Max (Morgan Savidan) and Sam (Sasha Carberry Sharma), have just taken a hallucinogenic before the confident and self-assured Max goes back to London to continue her life away from Ireland. Sam struggles with this…