Theatre News | Stage Listings, Reviews & More |The Irish Times

Stephen Rea and (reflected) Judith Roddy in The Visiting Hour by Frank McGuinness, ‘streaming from the Gate auditorium’. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh

It’ll do for now but streaming can’t replicate the live experience

Hugh Linehan
May 8, 2021

Does it matter whether online performances are recorded or live?

Drama and theatre studies students from NUI Galway perform in Nochtaithe (Unveiled), an artistic response to the survivor testimonies gathered and archived as part of NUI Galway’s Tuam oral history project. Photograph: Aengus McMahon

Scandal, silence, shame: the careful retelling of a buried story

Deirdre Falvey
May 8, 2021

A new NUI Galway production responds to the lived experiences notably missing from the report into mother and baby homes

Irish comedian Dylan Moran. Photograph: Bryan Thomas/New York Times

Dylan Moran: ‘I don’t give a f**k about PC. The decisions I take about what I say are mine’

Brian Logan
May 7, 2021

‘I’ve offended people, I regret it and I’ll probably do it again,’ says the comedian

John Doran and Caitríona Ennis in the The Fall of the Second Republic Photograph: Ros Kavanagh

What happens when a theatre actor loses a year?

Chris McCormack
May 6, 2021

The pandemic has given performers a chance to recalibrate ambitions and expectations

King Lear in a Van: Arthur Riordan in the title role. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

All the world is a van: Shakespeare in a time of Covid

Patrick Freyne
May 5, 2021

King Lear in a Van is a clever way of bringing theatre and drama to the masses

Boland: Journey of a Poet – Siobhán Cullen in Druid’s production; the artist Debbie Chapman is painting a portrait of Eavan Boland in the background

Boland: Journey of a Poet – One-note production of a near-perfect biographical play

Chris McCormack
April 26, 2021

Review: Druid’s chronicle of Eavan Boland’s life and work overlooks myriad possibilities

The Visiting Hour: Stephen Rea and (reflected) Judith Roddy give deep and rich performances in Frank McGuinness’s new play. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh

The Visiting Hour: Stephen Rea, a nursing home, the pandemic

Sara Keating
April 23, 2021

Review: Frank McGuinness’s short but meaningful new play has brought the Gate back to life

One of Frances Kelly’s paintings, a portrait of her daughter Eavan Boland as a young girl. It features in the poster for Druid’s Boland: Journey of a Poet.

Druid’s new production explores the mind and imagination of Eavan Boland

Deirdre Falvey
April 20, 2021

Performance piece edited by Colm Tóibín will livestream one year after the poet’s death

Teresa Deevy: in recent years, critical attention has turned to her radio drama.

Teresa Deevy and the secrets of the green suitcase

Caoilfhionn Ní Bheacháin
April 3, 2021

Best known for her productions at the Abbey, the Waterford playwright also wrote for radio, and there’s a mystery surrounding the origins of unpublished work under a pseudonym

George RR Martin: “It ought to be spectacular.” Photograph: Colby Katz/New York Times

Game of Thrones new stage show to feature ‘love, vengeance, madness’

April 1, 2021

Planned Broadway/West End show to feature a young Ned Stark and Jaime Lannister

The Gate’s Selina Cartmell: ‘We were fighting for our lives’

Deirdre Falvey
March 27, 2021

Closed for a year, the theatre is staging a new Frank McGuinness play written during Covid

Home: Part One – Brenda Fricker reading testimony from Patricia Breaden. Photograph: Ste Murray

Home: Part One – Abbey stream amplifies the voices of silenced mother and baby home survivors

Chris McCormack
March 18, 2021

Theatre review: Powerful, earth-shifting testimonies are solemnly read as scripts

Janet Jackson, Rhythm Nation. Photograph: A&M Records

Think you can’t dance? Here’s how to learn everything from the WAP routine to 80s throwbacks

Siobhan Burke
March 8, 2021

A good online tutorial can be the difference between a frustrating process and a fulfilling one

‘I’ve never done live stuff ever. It absolutely terrifies me. The idea of being heckled, I think, scares me more than anything else.’ Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times

Michael Fry: ‘I’ve never done live stuff ever. It absolutely terrifies me’

Patrick Freyne
March 6, 2021

The online comedian on stage fright, indie bands and why Navan isn’t a funny town

Gare St Lazare’s adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s How It Is. Photograph: Clare Keogh

Cork theatre-makers waiting in the wings to step into the new normal

Mary Leland
March 1, 2021

Theatre scene that thrived before pandemic is busy planning for return to work

Abbey Theatre: Caitríona McLauglin and Mark O’Brien are its new artistic and executive directors

Abbey Theatre: New artistic and executive directors announced

Deirdre Falvey
February 23, 2021

Caitríona McLaughlin and Mark O’Brien will succeed Graham McLaren and Neil Murray

Claudia Carroll: somehow, by some miracle, might my little play get to see the light of day?

Claudia Carroll: My wish for 2021? That bums end up on actual seats in an actual theatre

Claudia Carroll
February 23, 2021

To have one cancelled show may be regarded as a misfortune; to have four looks like carelessness

Stanley Townsend on stage with director Lynne Parker before the premiere of Solar Bones by Mike McCormack in an adaptation by Michael West. Photograph: Mark Stedman

Rough Magic prepares to cast spell on live audiences again

Deirdre Falvey
February 16, 2021

The theatre company is feeding the future through a wide development programme

Once upon a Bridge: Aaron Monaghan and Siobhán Cullen in the Druid production of Sonya Kelly’s play. Photograph: Emilija Jefremova

Once Upon a Bridge: Unchecked aggression and its regretful aftermath

Chris McCormack
February 15, 2021

Theatre review: In Sonya Kelly’s new play, commonplace hostilities can alter lives forever

Stephen Mullan: ‘Slowly the fire began to die inside. The writing stopped as reality sank in’

‘I used to be a stand-up comedian’ – a stage career cut short by Covid-19

Stephen Mullan
February 13, 2021

Driven offstage by the pandemic, I have said farewell to the followers and started a new life

‘You have no authority here!’: Jackie Weaver during last week’s meeting. Photograph: Handforth Parish Council/PA Wire

Don’t cry for me, Jackie Weaver: Lloyd Webber writes tribute to Zoom sensation

Helen Pidd
February 11, 2021

Impresario releases ode to English local council clerk after ‘operatic’ meeting

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Macnas, whose parades are a core part of their work, receive this year’s special tribute award. Photograph: Brian Arthur

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Dublin Dance Festival launches Summer 2021 Edition

Dublin Dance Festival launches Summer 2021 Edition

Dublin Dance Festival is back with a new selection of fresh, daring and courageous dance online from May 18th-30th, including new and pioneering dance performances from trailblazing artists from Ireland and around the world; glimpses behind the scenes; and moments for families, friends, artists and communities to connect, move and play

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