Ireland Reviews

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: Shaunna Lee Lynch Director: Ciarán MacArtain Reviewer: David Keane Leaving a far from illustrious journalism career in London, one that involved more pouring coffee than Pulitzers, Siobhán (Karen Killenn) finds herself back home in East Cork and living with her mother Angela (Claire O’Donovan). She quickly realises that the place she left behind is no longer the same and ...

Writer: David Ireland Director: Gareth Nicholls Reviewer: Ciara L. Murphy An Englishman, an Ulster Unionist, and an Irish-American try to put on a play. This is not the opening line to a poorly delivered joke, but it is the premise of a poorly written play. David Ireland’s Ulster American split the critics in 2018 during its Edinburgh run. It’s hard to ...

Writer: Samuel Beckett Adaption: Barry McGovern Director: Tom Creed Reviewer: Sarah Hoover Samuel Beckett wrote Watt while around him WWII demonstrated that reason alone cannot make sense of the world and do not make it a better place. He said he wrote it to keep him sane, and the desperation with which the title character seeks order, structure, and logic ...

Writer: Gemma Kane Director: Claire Maguire Reviewer: Clara Mallon “I actually walked into that smoke to die”. Gemma Kane’s debut play 48 begins with searing testimony of survivor’s guilt. A smoke haze oppressively fills Smock Alley’s Boys School theatre and we are introduced to bodies who clamour methodically, moving agonisingly throughout the space, gasping for air immersed in disco lights. Aided ...

Writer: Tracy Martin Director: Vanessa Fielding  Reviewer: Ciara L. Murphy “People don’t like young girls full of life, making noise.” Working class women suffer a double jeopardy of discrimination. They are marginalised from society by proxy of their class and they are marginalised within their class by the controlling element misogyny. Tracy Martin’s Dublin Will Show You How illuminates the weight ...

Writer: Clare Dunne Director: Tom Creed Reviewer: Laura Marriott “I’m afraid to admit I’m tired of roaming / But it feels a weird kinda good to be home” When life doesn’t seem to be going anywhere and you find yourself living back in your childhood bedroom what can you do? Well, if you’re Missy, you draw on your eyebrows, get ...

Writer: Edna O’Brien Adaption: Edna O’Brien Director: Graham McLaren Reviewer: Ciara L. Murphy “He came home.” Those three words change Kate’s life forever. Kate (Grace Collender) and Baba (Lola Pettigrew) are about to embark on the adventure of their lives. Heading for St. Enda’s convent school, these two teenage girls confront their own sexuality, the limits and challenges of female ...