Author: The Reviews Hub - Ireland

Writer: Christian O’Reilly Director: Mark Fitzgerald A stripped back scene welcomes us into the world of The Good Father – a sparse but cosy set design by Eugenia Genunchi. The Boy’s School is a perfect stage for an intimate play like this. I read Is This About Sex? by O’Reilly years ago, which contains such heart and humour that my expectations were high going into The Good Father. At a New Year’s Eve house party, Tim and Jane meet in an empty room. Can a one night stand lead to more? With a two-hander play like this, generally you want…

Writer: Anthony Kinahan Director: Anna Simpson With Unguarded Anthony Kinahan explores a very relevant and sensitive topic that has an important place in the national discussion – the lack of regulation regarding surrogacy in Ireland. This 75-minute multi-role one-man show has a short run at the Project Arts before beginning its national tour, so there are plenty of opportunities to catch it around the country. Perhaps due to this tour and its multiple venues the set is virtually non-existent. Kinahan takes to a stage furnished with one simple chair, but the full back wall projector in the Cube has been…

Directors: Millie Daniel-Dempsey and Amy Robyn Lyster Dramaturgy: Libby Seward For a few nights only Project Arts Centre is home to the genius of Honey & Lemon’s Double Act; an exploration of female duos from the performing world through song and dance. That’s a neat little way to summarise this piece but it doesn’t do it much justice – the show is mesmerising, the performance is spectacular, and the tone shifts and changes with a speed that approaches the border of jarring. It is certainly something to behold. Millie Daniel-Dempsey and Amy Robyn Lyster are the co-directors of Honey &…

Writer: Michael J. Harnett Director: Vinnie McCabe The cosy stage upstairs in Bewley’s Café Theatre is convincingly transformed into an East Wall living room this month, with the crocheted throw, mustard couch, and old paintings that you’d expect to find in any house belonging to a person in their seventies, complete with indoor crystal ashtray (props courtesy of Wilde Vintage Company Dublin). This living room is the scene for BULLIED; a story centred around the relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter as they navigate the issues facing them. Vinnie McCabe and Michael J. Harnett are the founding members of Dublin…

Writer: Gary Duggan Director: Shaun Elebert Presenting their performance of Gary Duggan’s ‘It’s A Wonderful Bleedin’ Life’ tonight at Smock Alley’s Boys’ School, Judder Theatre showcase a modern Irish stage version of Frank Capra’s famous movie. The much loved black and white film starring James Stewart was adapted from Philip Van Doren Stern’s 1943 short story, ‘The Greatest Gift’, itself loosely based on Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’.  And so this enduring tale has been long in the telling. To the soulful strains of Calvin N. Emery’s ‘Bells will be ringing’ the lights come up on one of the most…

Concept, composition and electronics: Lucia Kilger  Flutes / performance: Lina Andonovska Dance / performance: Ria Rehfuss There is no dictionary definition for the word ‘nournimity’ and no explanation can be found anywhere in the promotional literature for tonight’s performance, so this show is intriguing from the outset. Three diverse and exceptional talents have come together to produce a unique and interesting multi-sensory experience. That its world premiere is being held in our own Project Arts Centre here in Temple Bar, for one night only, makes ‘Nournimity’ the hottest ticket in town. A member of four-time Grammy Award-winning ensemble ‘Eighth Blackbird’,…

Director: Lynne Parker Writer: Rory Nolan There is a yellow line painted down the middle of the kitchen table. Pato and Patti’s 40th wedding anniversary is coming up, and they’re spending it in the same house but decidedly not together. They’ve been separated since the inquest of Pato’s mother, who was poisoned with weed killer. They bicker and pick at each other, until they can take no more and use ‘the wall’ as a get out clause to avoid communicating. The references to the wall are continuous, and as a metaphor it fell stale and as a joke it didn’t…

Writer: James Joyce Director: Michael James Ford It’s always immensely gratifying when a cultural encounter not only feeds your soul but entertains you as well. From their depiction of one of Aidan Hickey’s “Painting Ulysses” pictures (Hades) in their promotional literature to their wonderful stage adaptation of James Joyces’ ‘Grace’, Terry O’Neill and Michael James Ford have assembled a marvellous Christmas treat for theatre goers. Even the stained-glass windows used as the backdrop of Sandra Butler’s thoughtfully constructed set, serve to remind us of Bewley’s Café’s own Harry Clarke stained-glass artwork. And Clarke was, of course, a contemporary of Joyce.…