Author: The Reviews Hub - Ireland

Writer: Callum Maxwell Director: Lee Coffey A tale of two brothers finally united. Two brothers on one tiny stage (toeing the line between intimate and claustrophobic) – Matthew was given up by their Mam 30 odd years ago, whereas young Michael has had her all to himself the last 19 years. Navigating the emotions and questions that come with such a discovery proves to be an overwhelming task for this little piece of theatre.  The rhyming verse that starts off the show is at times uncomfortable to watch. Theatre that involves talking to/at the audience doesn’t feel like theatre, it…

Writer: Vincent Woods Director: John O’Hare Maree Kearns has transformed the stage in the New Theatre into a gorgeously desolate abandoned house with what might be one of the best sets of the year so far – something wonderful to gaze upon while you wait for On the Way Out to start. Written by Vincent Woods, it is a short but layered study of a dying town in rural Ireland, where commercial forestry is marching in to bring the place back to nature (though an unnatural nature it may be), told from the perspective of a dying man (Seamus O’Rourke)…

Writer: Sheena Lambert Director: Rex Ryan The first feeling of walking into the Boys’ School stage in Smock Alley to see Cosima was one of panic – Ride of the Valkyries was playing on a tinny speaker, so all that I could conceivably know about the titular character, wife of the 19th century composer Richard Wagner, had already been referenced. Would the next 75 minutes (ten minutes longer than the advertised 65) drag by in a smog of classical music jargon and history? The answer, to this reviewer’s great relief, was certainly not – Mary Murray in the one role…

Writer: James Joyce Directors: Jim Roche and Liam Hourican James Joyce was enjoying a cultural life in Italy when his sister mentioned that back home in Ireland people didn’t even have a cinema. Excited by the prospect of a lucrative business venture and with the financial backing of two Triestine investors, Joyce’s Cinematograph Volta opened its doors at 45, Mary Street, Dublin on December 20th, 1909. It can be no coincidence then, that actors Jim Roche and Liam Hourican along with musicians Conor Sheil and Feilimidh Nunan breathe life into two of Joyce’s short stories from The Dubliners today as…

Writer: Ultan Pringle Director: Joy Nesbitt Arriving just in time for the peak event of Dublin Pride, Ultan Pringle’s Boyfriends graces The Cube with a contemporary love(ish) story, replete with music, madness, and mess. Pringle is the writer in residence of An Grianán, where the production will travel to after its run in the Project Arts Centre, and Boyfriends is the latest in a series of successful creative endeavours from the collective LemonSoap Productions, of which Pringle comprises one quarter. If you caught Piglet in the New Theatre last year you might be very tempted to see what wonders are…

Writer: Stewart Shields Director: Darragh Feehely If you were expecting priests, piety, and prayers, you would be sorely mistaken. This seminary is more like a raging frat house, filled with secret blunts, hangovers and rosary reciting competitions. We meet Peter on the hunt for a job, mostly in vain. This is the first character of many for Stewart Shields during this one-man show, which he also wrote. A mistaken application leads Peter to a rural seminary, where he finds himself training for a life in the priesthood. Peter’s first term in the seminary revolves mainly around the Pat Kenny award…

Writer: Fèilim James Director: Patrick Joseph Byrnes In life, there are ‘car-crash’ moments one cannot look away from. It’s a terrible human affliction, to be fascinated by the tragedies of others; and yet we read the disaster articles first, and gossip about them later. Sole Flower, Spidered Soul follows the devastating life events of Ireland’s beloved James Joyce, and his estranged daughter Lucia.  Much is known about Joyce’s life, but less is known about Lucia – who spent the majority of her life staring at the walls of an insane asylum, where she would be kept until her death a…

It was a pleasure to experience the last performance of Michelle Read’s play On A House Like A Fire performed by the author at Bewley’s Café Theatre. Listening to the play involved the audience in a sensory journey. Words were carefully arranged and orchestrated to create images, associative thoughts and emotions, accompanied by Brian Keegan’s musical chords which blended beautifully to highlight subtle nuances of memory and mood. Michelle Read’s lasting relationship with her deceased mother is conveyed in theatrical and therapeutic devices; the playwright transforms her loss creatively, using ordinary household objects to map stories in celebration of her…