A True Tall Tale

A dark Danish fairy tale for ages eight and up that reveals its inner workings

The rape of Lucrece

Camille O’Sullivan gives the wronged Lucrece a powerful voice as Shakespeare’s text is condensed into 12 songs

Neutral Hero

Richard Maxwell takes the individuality, drama, poetry, mimesis, emphasis and virtuosity out of the story of a hero . . . so what’s left?

The Hanging Gardens

Frank McGuinness’s new play gives a glimpse of the pathology of the Irish patriarch and how its roots thrive despite the poison

Margarete

Polish theatre director Janek Turkowski draws the audience into his mission to derive meaning from films he discovered depicting an unknown woman’s life

Taramandal

Delhi’s Tadpole Repertory, a company of modest means in one of the most populous cities on earth, tells the story of a face in the crowd

Behind the curtain: the dark arts of dramaturgy

Help the writer deliver the best play possible. Get the basics right early. Do very little for a successful show, then claim the credit. Welcome to the tricks of the dramaturg’s trade

Desire Under the Elms

Nineteenth-century New England comes closer to home in Corn Exchange’s austerely beautiful production of Eugene O’Neill’s tragedy

Beastie

This show for children keeps adult meddling to a minimum by keeping them out of the show

The Critic

It has terrific comic performances, put a number of competing angles bring confusion rather than clarity to this show

Ground and Floor

This delicate production offers no easy solutions and leaves room for the audience’s own interpretations

Waiting for Godot

Gare St Lazare Players take Beckett’s masterpiece away from more earthly concerns. Does Godot need more gravity?

The young ones: brave new writing takes over Irish theatres

Irish theatre is bursting with energy – but youth is all these artists have in common

I’ve to Mind Her

This emotionally affecting portrait of a teenage carer uses a single story to tell a devastating broader truth

Three Fingers Below the Knee

Exploring nearly 50 years of state censorship, is director Tiago Rodrigues appalled by historic injustice or envious of a time when theatre was dangerous?

Feast of Bones

If they pay attention, this show will satisfy even the hungriest of audiences

The Threepenny Opera

Director Wayne Jordan restores the satirical and human bite to an opera of opulence and economy

Dusk Ahead

There is a simplicity of setting and a purity of concept in this brooding dance show

This Is Not My Voice Speaking

In this clever and diverting show, the only immediate tangible human input comes from the audience

The Events

The Events is complex study of how a mass shooting affects a community and individuals

Brecht effect: bourgeois bashing with catchy tunes

‘The Threepenny Opera’ began in disaster and grew into a triumph – a new Irish production hopes to burnish its agitprop credentials

The Bruising of Clouds

The third and final play for Fishamble by Sean McLoughlin has a gathering storm that is simply dispelled

Germinal

Germinal sets out to build up a world in a black-box space in this razor-sharp production

Tom and Vera

A debt-ridden middle-aged Irish couple plot to rob a bank in Desperate Optimists’ financial crisis revenge fantasy

Wunderkammer: Thrills, spills and belly laughs in a show that will leave you dizzy

Australian company Circa’s athletic theatre is humorous and dangerous

Maeve’s House

Eamon Morrissey’s New York encounter with Maeve Brennan forms the basis of this show, and it struggles to escape its source material

Winners and Losers

It’s not difficult to take sides in this ambiguous show

Seven-day schedule: Make the most of Dublin Theatre Festival

Seven shows, seven restaurants, and seven options; here’s a week’s worth of suggestions and great nights out for this year’s festival

Video: All the ways we fell in love with Godot

60 years on and we're still crazy about Waiting for Godot, Beckett’s most famous play

Circus, the new frontier

With their new cabinet of wonders, the Australian company Circa beggar belief and transcend language

Dancing in the dark: Junk Ensemble brings on the blindfolds

‘Dusk Ahead’ asks its dancers to step into the unknown – ‘they genuinely don’t know what is ahead’

A Joycean stream of consciousness

Olwen Fouéré’s performance gives voice to the river in James Joyce’s unfathomable ‘Finnegans Wake’. It’s sink-or-swim time

Following the flow of the ‘Wake’ to its source

How can you capture the dark seam of energy and form at the heart of ‘Finnegans Wake’? By giving voice to the river that runs through James Joyce’s extraordinary book

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