Author: The Reviews Hub - Ireland

Writer: Fionntán Larney Director: Joy Nesbitt It’s not often that you’re left hoping that the end of an 80 minute one hander is not actually the end, but endings. leaves the audience wanting more and more and more. It’s a spectacular performance from start to finish, with sharp writing, gut wrenching emotion, plenty of laugh out loud moments, several fantastically catchy songs, and some very smart use of audience participation. Played by Fionntán Larney, Henry is a bit of a wreck. Dealing with the death of his mother, his strained relationship with his father, his unhappiness in his job, his…

Writer: Nuala McKeever Director: Dan Gordon In the opening of this play we are introduced to three very different women- Brenda, Maureen, and Joanne. The women live in Belfast in different neighbourhoods, and come from very different backgrounds – but the women could be from anywhere. We have met them all in family, in class, in our neighbourhood. The women have joined a creative writing class to search for meaning and continuity in their lives. Their stories are very different, yet connected and universal. The playwright and actress Nuala McKeever in this one woman play, situates and explores loss, grief,…

Writer: Carmel Winters Director: Rex Ryan In the congenial surrounds of Bestseller Café at 41, Dawson Street, Glass Mask Theatre treat us to a first-rate production of Carmel Winter’s ‘The Road to Joe’. In a master-class of acting, Cillian O’Gairbhi assumes, and transitions between, multiple roles with disparate accents, skilfully and seamlessly.  He is predominantly twins, Joseph and Patrick Aherne.  Curtains open upon Joseph, an immensely likeable, vulnerable adult, boogying hilariously to Joe Dolan in the living room of the Island home he shares with his ‘Mammy’. They have tickets for the singers’ show that evening to celebrate Joseph’s 40th…

Writer & Director: Paul Nugent  Inspired by the book by: Andrew Porwancher  This play is based on a riveting true story from 19th Century America, which makes it even more compelling to watch it brought to life on stage. The story follows Lizzie Nutt, who is involved in a scandal that becomes widely published. The scandal involves Lizzie’s fiancé, a lawyer named Nicholas Dukes, who is made to believe she has been having multiple affairs, an act that was strictly prohibited in this period. This has devastating effects for all involved. This play displays how patriarchal society was in the…

Writer: Liam Wilson Smyth Director: Paul Meade. Alistair Caspar (the magician) invites the audience to enter the secret world of the magician’s tricks. Outside the theatre space he has plotted a web in Dublin city, assisted by friends to help him woo his lost love Claire and guide her back to Bewley’s café, to be there for his last performance. The play reminds me of Cyrano de Bergerac, who loves at a distance and who employs a variety of ruses to capture the object of his affection, Roxanne. As playwright and actor Liam Wilson Smyth treats the audience to verbal…

Writer: Connor Wray Director: Connor Wray, Mat Oliphant, Dan Meigh  Off the Grounds new show, The Ballads of Billy the Kid (note the s), came barrelling into Killruddery’s outdoor garden theatre this week like two gunslingers busting through saloon bar doors. At first it seemed an unusual choice for a play, but the troupe quickly captured the audience and drew them into the world of the wild west with their specific and unique take on a tale old as time and an outlaw whose name went down in history. We meet Billy at four different stages of his life. Played…

Writer: Donagh Humphreys Director: Andy Crook Donagh Humphreys’ second offering (both in terms of full-length play, and at the New Theatre) is an absolute delight. At heart Beginning Maggie is a simple story that follows Gen (Eva-Jane Gaffney), Brendán (Jed Murray), and Shane (Fiach Kunz) as they navigate their relationships while preparing an am-dram performance of John B. Keane’s “Big Maggie”. But it is simplicity done to perfection. The writing is natural and uproariously funny, Humphreys has captured some very distinct and believable characters and set them against each other in scenes that feel plucked out of real life. The…

Writer: Enda Walsh Director: Marc Atkinson Borrull Following on from their successful run in Galway, Landmark Productions, in collaboration with Galway International Arts Festival, brings Enda Walsh’s ‘Bedbound’ to Dublin’s 3Olympia. This iteration is not only a revival of the play which debuted at Dublin’s Theatre Festival in 2000 but, after 40 years, is also a welcome rekindling of Colm Meaney’s metiér on the Irish stage. An added layer of interest, and reminiscent of Brendan Gleeson’s turn with his sons, Domhnall and Brian in Walsh’s ‘The Walworth Farce’, is that Meaney’s daughter, Brenda, joins him for this two-hander. ‘Bedbound’ speaks…