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Sat, Dec 14, 2019

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Voulez-vous? The international touring production of Mamma Mia!, starring Irish West End star Sharon Sexton, is at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre until January 5th Different class and musical sass: This week’s theatre highlights
  • Sara Keating
  • December 14, 2019

Well That’s What I Heard explores class divisions; Mamma Mia! explores Abba hits

The Abbey Theatre: ‘We are not in a position to stand over this document.’ Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill/The Irish Times Abbey Theatre disputes record of talks with theatre workers
  • Deirdre Falvey
  • December 12, 2019

National theatre says notes not ‘sufficiently accurate’ as facilitator stands over record

Cinderella stars Jenny Dixon, Jake Carter, Alan Hughes and Michele McGrath. Photograph: Leon Farrell/Photocall

Cinderella review: Like being slapped in the face by a rainbow
  • December 11, 2019

Plus our reviews of all the best Christmas pantos – and the ones to avoid

Drama at Inish, directed by Cal McCrystal, is running at the Abbey Theatre until January 24th, 2020. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh What’s going on at the Abbey: heated exchanges, impassioned defences and disputed records
  • Deirdre Falvey
  • December 11, 2019

Theatre practitioners thought they had reached an understanding with the Abbey on more Irish plays and more new dramas. What went wrong?

Abbey criticisms: the theatre’s directors, Graham McLaren and Neil Murray. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Abbey accused of reneging on promise of more Irish plays
  • Deirdre Falvey
  • December 10, 2019

Theatre professionals say Abbey had not delivered on committments, as writers express no confidence in board

Pauline McCaul, the  ‘the miracle maker’, designs and makes the panto costumes, pictured  with Joe Conlan as Widow Twankey at the Gaiety Theatre. Photograph: Tom Honan ‘It’s above you’: How the Gaiety made Aladdin’s magic carpet fly
  • Sara Keating
  • December 10, 2019

Meet Daryn Crosbie and the colourful crew behind the Gaiety panto

Driving Home for Christmas The week’s best plays: Christmas with Orson Welles and stuck in the pub
  • Sara Keating
  • December 7, 2019

A ‘radio play within a play’ production; and an annual tradition at the Lyric in Belfast

 Rex Ryan in  The Ridleys, at the Peacock Theatre. Photograph:  Ste Murray Irish theatre in 2019: A dramatic year that left the future uncertain
  • Peter Crawley
  • December 7, 2019

Theatre in Ireland this year was bookended by two crises, a state of play mirrored by the work

Brooklyn bound: Ruth Negga as Hamlet in the Gate Theatre’s production. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh Ruth Negga takes Hamlet to New York in Gate Theatre’s 2020 season
  • Deirdre Falvey
  • December 5, 2019

Dublin theatre to stage O’Casey, Little Foxes, a new Medea and a new Nancy Harris

Endgame: Rosaleen Linehan and Des Keogh in Pan Pan’s production. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh Endgame review: A grim depiction of entropy and finality
  • Peter Crawley
  • December 3, 2019

Pan Pan’s production doesn’t so much revivify Samuel Beckett’s play as submit to it

Des Keogh and Rosaleen Linehan in Endgame. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh The best theatre this week: From Beckett to a female-centred festival
  • Sara Keating
  • November 30, 2019

Des Keogh and Rosaleen Linehan stage a reunion; and SoloSirens comes to Tallaght

The Fall of the Second Republic, a co-production with The Corn Exchange, is a new ensemble comedy from Michael West and Annie Ryan. Abbey Theatre reveals full list of shows for 2020
  • Deirdre Falvey
  • November 28, 2019

Marina Carr, Brian Friel, Shelagh Delaney, Lisa Tierney-Keogh and Roddy Doyle part of the line-up

Drama at Inish: Marion O’Dwyer and Nick Dunning in Cal McCrystal’s production. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh Drama at Inish review: A fun if frictionless experience
  • Peter Crawley
  • November 27, 2019

Lennox Robinson’s theatrical satire is comically enhanced in the Abbey’s slapstick-accentuated Christmas production

Jonathan Miller: ‘one of the most important figures in British theatre and opera of the past half-century’. Photograph: Graham Stark/Hulton/Getty Jonathan Miller, writer and director, dies aged 85
  • November 27, 2019

Polymath was also a doctor and a member of the Beyond the Fringe comedy team

Lorcan Cranitch in Blood in the Dirt by Rory Gleeson. Photograph: Patrick Redmond The best theatre shows to see this week
  • Sara Keating
  • November 23, 2019

Rory Gleeson’s Blood in the Dirt, and the Bockety World of Henry Bucket

Jim Jefferies: “The only person that can cancel me is me.” ‘I don’t look online, so it doesn’t ruin my comedy’
  • Shilpa Ganatra
  • November 23, 2019

Ahead of his appearance at the 3Arena, Australian comic Jim Jefferies talks career and family

Endgame: Andrew Bennett, Rosaleen Linehan, Des Keogh and Anthony Morris. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh Acting out the apocalypse – in dustbins
  • Gemma Tipton
  • November 23, 2019

The cast of Pan Pan’s upcoming Endgame talk about Samuel Beckett’s enduring relevance

Director Cal McCrystal with the cast of Drama at Inish at the Abbey Theatre Drama at Inish gets the ‘funny fixer’ treatment
  • Sara Keating
  • November 23, 2019

Cal McCrystal has worked as a comedy adviser – from Paddington to One Man, Two Guvnors – and now comes to Dublin to direct Lennox Robinson’s 1933 play at the Abbey

‘As Scrooge, Owen Roe glowers and grimaces beneath a top hat’ in A Christmas Carol A Christmas Carol review: Only a Scrooge wouldn’t enjoy it
  • Sara Keating
  • November 22, 2019

Selina Cartmell’s ambitious Gate production is both intimate and involving

‘No Marvel movie will compete with an actual human being flying through the air’
  • Amy O'Connor
  • November 22, 2019

Circus 1903, complete with life-sized elephant puppets, is an extravaganza that will resonate with all ages

Blood in the Dirt: Lorcan Cranitch’s monologue can feel more like poetry than theatre. Photograph: Patrick Redmond Blood in the Dirt review: Rory Gleeson breathes life into an Irish-Canadian folk tale
  • Ciara L Murphy
  • November 21, 2019

Lorcan Cranitch gives a robust performance in a timely commentary on the rights of possession and the balance of power

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