Dublin Fringe Festival

Writer: Alison Spittle Director: Simon Mulholland Reviewer: David Keane In a midlands middle-of-nowhere location Michael and Shannon have a date. If anything, it’s something to do. The cinema, a few drinks, and the customary shift. Both disheartened by the world around them, they can still dream of better things. At least they’re not dogging at the GAA pitch and Michael ...

Writer: Samuel Beckett Director: Sarah Jane Scaife Reviewer: Saoirse Anton Published in 1980, Company seems an unlikely candidate for a stage adaptation, a radio play perhaps, but the story of a man lying alone on his back in the dark considering his past and current existence does not seem like a piece for theatre. However, since its publication, Company has prompted a ...

Writer: Colm Keegan Director: Mark O’Brien Reviewer: Saoirse Anton For Saoirse takes place over just one eventful night. Craner’s ex, Emily, is having their baby, and Craner can do nothing right. Pulled to and fro between the admonishments of Emily’s disapproving grandmother, the ire of the unpredictable Bocker and the mysterious appearance of James Connolly,  Craner is doing his best ...

Writer: Zoë Comyns Director: Catríona McLaughlin Reviewer: Saoirse Anton 19038UVABY In the small Vintage Room of Workman’s, an audience listens to sounds, sounds that tell a story. As ZoëComyns reminds us, none of us can ever experience true silence, there is always sound. But what effects can those sounds have? Set up like a live podcast, Owing to the Failure ...

Choreographer/Co-Deviser: Liz Roche Writer/Co-Deviser: Shane O’Reilly Reviewer: Saoirse Anton In her choreographer’s note, Liz Roche talks about Yeats’s use of his living room as a performance space, to facilitate “intimacy, privacy and immediacy” in his work. It is this closeness that makes Näher…closer, nearer, sooner as affecting and engaging as it is. A site-specific piece created to mark the opening ...

Writer: Thommas Kane Byrne Director: Clare Maguire Reviewer: David Keane Triple threat Julian Le Blanc is up to high doh. It’s the 10thanniversary of his eponymous school of dance and drama but the upcoming celebratory show is far from perfect. There’s lots to rehearse, students with social problems, and an assistant who can’t really assist. If Ballybough Road thought it ...

Writer: Teri Fitzgerald Director: Teri Fitzgerald Reviewer: Laura Marriott Welcome to Peafield Hospital for the Elderly. Here you will find staff and residents living in harmony. Or not. This is a hospital where the staff like a slower pace of life than that of their patients. After all, what is the point in pushing oneself too much when the day ...

Writer: Ailís Ní Riaín Composer: Ailís Ní Riaín Reviewer: Ciara L. Murphy I Used to Feel is a painfully intimate music-theatre performance about the breakdown of communication and the challenges of mental torment. The performance, set in the luxurious surrounds of The Marker Hotel in Grand Canal Dock, challenges its audience to find their own meaning in the short 25-minute piece. ...