Dublin Theatre Festival

Sopro: Tiago Rodrigues has created a gentle portrait of one theatre, built in nostalgic moments

Sopro review: Memoir of an invisible woman

Dublin Theatre Festival: The backstage view becomes a way of seeing the world in Tiago Rodrigues’ elegant piece of metatheatre

The Haircut! review: King Labhraidh Loingseach gets a makeover

The Haircut! review: King Labhraidh Loingseach gets a makeover

Dublin Theatre Festival: This perfectly paced production for ages eight and up retells the Irish folk tale for a new audience

Collection of Lovers review: Can’t a woman can’t take a bath with a stranger any more without them getting the wrong idea?

Collection of Lovers review: Can’t a woman can’t take a bath with a stranger any more without them getting the wrong idea?

Dublin Theatre Festival: Raquel André has, to date, gathered together 245 strangers to manufacture and document the illusion of intimacy. Where will it all end?

Removed review: Children on the edge, told with integrity and grit

Removed review: Children on the edge, told with integrity and grit

Dublin Theatre Festival: Fionnuala Kennedy’s play stays true to the experiences of young people in care

Real Magic review: A ludicrous Groundhog Day gameshow

Real Magic review: A ludicrous Groundhog Day gameshow

Dublin Theatre Festival: This never-ending gameshow is bleak, painful, playful and sometimes funny

Us/Them review: A story for children that no child should ever have to hear

Us/Them review: A story for children that no child should ever have to hear

Dublin Theatre Festival: Bronks stages a powerful, politically charged account of the Beslan massacre

Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation review: A read-along adventure to apocalypse

Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation review: A read-along adventure to apocalypse

Dublin Theatre Festival: Tim Crouch’s new play compares playwrights to cult leaders and dictators. Are we all on the same page?

Your Words in My Mouth review: What’s not to love?

Your Words in My Mouth review: What’s not to love?

Dublin Theatre Festival: Turning watchers into performers, this unusual show finds a subtle route into theatre’s fundamental aims

Pike St review: A storm threatens Manhattan – and a family

Pike St review: A storm threatens Manhattan – and a family

Dublin Theatre Festival: Nilaja Sun plays three generations of characters with ease

Walking to Jerusalem review: A personal and political one-man travelogue

Walking to Jerusalem review: A personal and political one-man travelogue

Dublin Theatre Festival: Justin Butcher serves as an energetic guide along the Roman roads out of Europe

A Love Like That review: Wistful drama teeming with myth and legend

A Love Like That review: Wistful drama teeming with myth and legend

Dublin Theatre Festival: Billy Roche’s new play turns modest characters into legends in their own lifetimes

One man hurled a transphobic slur and a burger. Nobody did anything

One man hurled a transphobic slur and a burger. Nobody did anything

Anti-trans violence: ‘This is a matter of life and death,’ says Travis Alabanza, whose one-person show Burgerz tackles the issue head-on

Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster review: Poirot, Maeterlinck and a stoned duck

Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster review: Poirot, Maeterlinck and a stoned duck

Dublin Theatre Festival: Nicola Gunn brings ceaseless motion to a restless meditation

Faultline review: Immersive journey through a societal upheaval

Faultline review: Immersive journey through a societal upheaval

Dublin Theatre Festival: This absorbing new work remembers a faultline in the early days of Irish gay rights

Hecuba review: Perspective and psychology brought to an ancient tale

Hecuba review: Perspective and psychology brought to an ancient tale

Dublin Theatre Festival: In Marina Carr’s version of Hecuba, the scale of tragedy is made rivetingly intimate

Pasolini’s Salò Redubbed review: Aims for greatness but falls significantly short

Pasolini’s Salò Redubbed review: Aims for greatness but falls significantly short

Dublin Theatre Festival: Despite the talented ensemble, neat staging and challenging concept, this production appears unconsidered

Mám review: Stirring, sensuous showcase of the physical form

Mám review: Stirring, sensuous showcase of the physical form

Dublin Theatre Festival: Michael Keegan-Dolan’s new dance production is 90 minutes of ritualised ecstasy

Carly Wijs: ‘You can’t turn away from the horror. You keep watching’

Carly Wijs: ‘You can’t turn away from the horror. You keep watching’

Brussels-based playwright hopes Us/Them about Beslan siege will enlighten children

The Alternative review: Sly thought experiment which unpicks threads of history

The Alternative review: Sly thought experiment which unpicks threads of history

Dublin Theatre Festival: In Fishamble’s new production, all of Ireland remains in the UK and now faces a referendum on whether to stay

How to Win Against History review: Glittery musical cabaret full of energy and irony

How to Win Against History review: Glittery musical cabaret full of energy and irony

Dublin Theatre Festival: A celebration of theatrical conventions that reclaims the hidden history of a cross-dressing aristocrat

Last Orders at the Dockside review: Celebration of a way of life no longer with us

Last Orders at the Dockside review: Celebration of a way of life no longer with us

Dublin Theatre Festival: Dermot Bolger’s social drama offers a window into history, but may struggle with contemporary audiences

The Bluffer’s Guide to Suburbia review: Returning emigrant dissects his home in sprawling style

The Bluffer’s Guide to Suburbia review: Returning emigrant dissects his home in sprawling style

Dublin Theatre Festival: Ray Scannell’s ambitious musical drama is performed with aplomb but lacks focus

Magdalene survivor: ‘I was raped by a priest. I want to tell my story. It is with me always’

Magdalene survivor: ‘I was raped by a priest. I want to tell my story. It is with me always’

Mary Merritt still wakes up crying at night and is now telling her story in You Can Leave at Any Time

The Playboy of the Western World review: A freshly unsettling journey

The Playboy of the Western World review: A freshly unsettling journey

Dublin Theatre Festival: It seems like a game that has spun out of control, where murder can be applauded if it is told well enough

The Beacon review: Absorbing, intelligent and grimly funny

The Beacon review: Absorbing, intelligent and grimly funny

Fascinated with ideas of art and ambiguity, Nancy Harris’s play sees long hidden secrets dredged up

Beckett’s Room review: A play with no performers and plenty of magic

Beckett’s Room review: A play with no performers and plenty of magic

Dublin Theatre Festival: Dead Centre’s ambitious new work depicts Beckett’s formative years in Nazi-occupied Paris

Dublin Theatre Festival gets its history on

Dublin Theatre Festival gets its history on

Whether it’s looking back or casting forward, this year’s event is rooted firmly in the now

Oonagh Murphy: On My Culture Radar

Oonagh Murphy: On My Culture Radar

The director on Aisling Bea, the renewed relevance of Cabaret, and the joys of a Dyson fan

Nancy Harris: ‘Plays are kind of cool now’

Nancy Harris: ‘Plays are kind of cool now’

With two new plays opening simultaneously in Dublin and London, the playwright lays bare both a family and a political drama, full of art and ambiguity

Aislín McGuckin: On My Culture Radar

Aislín McGuckin: On My Culture Radar

The actor on Azurmendi in Bilbao, Mark Ruffalo’s talent, and sources of inspiration

The play with no performers: Beckett’s Room is something between a conjuring act and a weird dream

The play with no performers: Beckett’s Room is something between a conjuring act and a weird dream

As the world that made Samuel Beckett who he was becomes magically apparent, the point of Dead Centre’s unusual approach begins to makes sense

Marina Carr: ‘There’s a whole world of women’s work that isn’t being seen’

Marina Carr: ‘There’s a whole world of women’s work that isn’t being seen’

The playwright comes full circle with the Irish premiere of Hecuba at Project Arts Centre

Theatre festival director calls for diverse, creative city, and more venues

Theatre festival director calls for diverse, creative city, and more venues

New Playboy, bunch of world premieres lined up for this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival

Dublin Theatre Festival 2018

Bluebeard’s Castle: Joshua Bloom as Bluebeard and Paula Murrihy as Judith in Irish National Opera’s production

Bluebeard’s Castle review: Beauty, power, exultation and despair

Dublin Theatre Festival: Bartók’s music is matched by Paula Murrihy, ideally paired with Joshua Bloom by Irish National Opera

My Name Is Language review: A nicely shameless exercise in name-dropping

Dublin Theatre Festival: Strangers spill personal anecdotes in Nicoline van Harskamp’s essayistic performance piece

St Nicholas: Brendan Coyle in Conor McPherson’s play. Photograph: Helen Maybanks

St Nicholas review: What does a theatre critic know anyway?

Dublin Theatre Festival: Brendan Coyle stars in the Irish premiere of Conor McPherson’s 1997 play

Rathmines Road: Janet Moran, Charlie Bonner, Karen Ardiff, Enda Oates and Rebecca Root in Deirdre Kinahan’s play. Photograph: Patrick Redmond

Rathmines Road review: A compassionate imagining of one woman’s private torment

Dublin Theatre Festival: A secret survivor of sexual assault encounters her rapist years later

Home Theatre (Ireland): Elaine Murphy in Caroline’s Wedding, for Rose Emmet

Home Theatre (Ireland) review: An innovation with life-changing potential

Dublin Theatre Festival: Intimate snapshots of life in Dublin 15 pair actors with locals. The results are top-notch

The End of Eddy: Kwaku Mills and Alex Austin share their role, their faces representing other characters – Eddy’s aggressive father, his bitter mother – on four television screens

The End of Eddy review: A staggering novel brought affectingly to the stage

Dublin Theatre Festival: Kwaku Mills and Alex Austin are engaging as Édouard Louis’s autobiographical character

The Fever: an antidote to the era of the individual. Photograph: Waleed Shah

The Fever review: An experiment in empathy and the nature of community

Dublin Theatre Festival: 600 Highwaymen respond to social and political polarisation

Klosterhof: Janek Turkowski and Iwona Nowacka document life in the Polish city of Szczecin in minute detail

Klosterhof review: Obsessive collectors of human traces

Dublin Theatre Festival: Janek Turkowski and Iwona Nowacka assemble a time capsule

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo: classical poise becomes pantomime as they bring Swan Lake to life

Les Ballets Trockadero review: Even the most po-faced ballet fans will giggle

Dublin Theatre Festival: The all-male ballet troupe blend dance and physical comedy

The M House: using a spindly boxy frame, the cast literally hold M House together, where the powers that be would rather see them stewing in daytime TV than dancing

The M House review: An abundance of ideas in an inclusive, inventive production

Dublin Theatre Festival: Authority, in Equinox’s witty play, is like a vertiginous ladder – there’s always someone on a higher rung

Paula Murrihy will play Judith in the upcoming production of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle for the Dublin Theatre Festival

Paula Murrihy: ‘You’ve got to find and follow your road ’

Irish mezzo-soprano on her unusual route into a singing career and her upcoming role as Judith, the fourth wife of Bluebeard

Company: Raymond Keane reimagines Samuel Beckett’s novella. Photograph: Futoshi Sakauchi

Company review: Sublime theatre for an audience ready to imagine

Dublin Theatre Festival: Raymond Keane soars in this Samuel Beckett dramatisation

The Bystander: Junk Ensemble’s piece remains driven by anger at Kitty Genovese’s murder, but the nuanced dance language recognises the complexity of the bystander effect. Photograph: Marco Novara

The Bystander review: The urge to conform, the need to take a stand

Dublin Theatre Festival: Kitty Genovese’s murder is rich material for Junk Ensemble

Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf photographed by Joan Marcus

Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf review: Who’s afraid of this trashy takedown?

Dublin Theatre Festival: An acerbic, postmodern riff on Edward Albee’s classic

Eliza’s Adventures in the Uncanny Valley: Pan Pan explores the influence of artificial intelligence on our capacity to be human

Eliza’s Adventures in the Uncanny Valley review: Can a riddle keep us interested?

Dublin Theatre Festival: The audience are stuck when a piece of theatre denies its characters humanity

Nassim: Iranian writer Nassim Soleimanpour in his autobiographical play

Nassim review: Children’s story, theatrical game and language lesson

Dublin Theatre Festival: Nassim Soleimanpour’s play explores our impulse to connect

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Amy Conroy and Paul Mescal in Rough Magic’s production. Photograph: Ste Murray

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man review: Ingenious, exhilarating fun

Dublin Theatre Festival: Rough Magic’s Joyce adaptation is refreshingly unconventional

The Patient Gloria: Gina Moxley’s play doesn’t feel like a breakthrough

The Patient Gloria review: Revisiting therapy as an exorcising scream

Dublin Theatre Festival: Gina Moxley restages Gloria Szymanski’s 1965 interviews with three therapists

The Misfits: Emmet Byrne, Aoibhínn McGinnity, Aidan Kelly and Patrick Ryan. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh

The Misfits review: An intimate character study in a stripped-back Wild West

Dublin Theatre Festival: Annie Ryan has sensitively adapted Arthur Miller’s drama

The Lost O’Casey: Gillian McCarthy as the radically reconceived Polly Pender. Photograph: Patrick Redmond

The Lost O’Casey review: An urgent understanding of contemporary Dublin

Dublin Theatre Festival: Anu’s immersive production sends characters and audience spinning through a disappearing city

Fantasia: TR Warszawa’s production invites the audience to see things differently. Photograph: Magda Hueckel

Fantasia review: A kind of inverse conjuring act

Dublin Theatre Festival: Is Polish theatre retreating from political engagement? Anna Karasinska’s deceptively simple production treads carefully

Mining Stories: Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere’s show about a dam collapse in Brazil in 2015 is thought-provoking and emotionally resonant

Mining Stories review: Innovative, resonant take on a dam-burst disaster

Dublin Theatre Festival: Silke Huysmans and Hannes Dereere bring a light touch to their weighty material

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in action. Photograph: Zoran Jelenic

The all-male ballet company defying stereotypes

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo on subverting traditions and the importance of the right pair of shoes

Hamlet: Ruth Negga with Peter Gaynor and Mark Huberman in the Gate production. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh

Hamlet review: Ruth Negga stars in an oddly one-note interpretation

Dublin Theatre Festival: Yaël Farber hones play’s divisions into survey of allies and enemies

The Mai: Derbhle Crotty is both tough and tender in what was Marina Carr’s first full-length play

The Mai review: Passionate performances in an unfocused production

Dublin Theatre Festival: Derbhle Crotty is moving as Marina Carr’s family figurehead

Multiverse: Louis Vanhaverbeke offers an evening of cycles, loops and whirring tori. Photograph: Jolien Fagard

Multiverse review: A delightful exercise in creative torque

Dublin Theatre Festival: Louis Vanhaverbeke shows off his staggeringly precise skills

DruidShakespeare: Richard III – Siobhán Cullen with Aaron Monaghan as the king. Photograph: Robbie Jack

DruidShakespeare: Richard III review – Striking, intoxicating, disturbing

Garry Hynes’s production is like a horror show seen through a haze of laughing gas

Brendan Coyle plays an embittered theatre critic who falls in with a group of vampires in a new production of Conor McPherson's 1997 play. ‘I’ve been lucky, I’ve never been eviscerated.’

Vampire valet: ‘Downton Abbey’ star gets his teeth into a new role

Brendan Coyle is best known as Downton’s valet Mr Bates, but he’s in darker territory at the Dublin Theatre Festival in Conor McPherson’s vampire tale ‘St Nicholas’

Sit in almost any part of Dublin, and you’re likely to find it has some association with Joyce. Photographs: Ste Murray

How do you turn ‘A Portrait of the Artist’ into a play?

Arthur Riordan on adapting Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man for Rough Magic

Emmet Byrne, Úna Kavanagh, Aoibhínn McGinnity, Patrick Ryan and Aidan Kelly in the Corn Exchange production of ‘The Misfits’ at Smock Alley Theatre as part of Dublin Theatre Festival. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh

The Misfits: Marilyn Monroe’s swansong gets a stage reboot

Corn Exchange is tackling Arthur Miller’s play for Dublin Theatre Festival. Ghosts of John Huston’s troubled 1961 movie loom large

Willie White, director of the Dublin Theatre Festival. Photograph: Dave Meehan/The Irish Times

Who is Dublin for? Who do we want to share it with?

Dublin Theatre Festival director Willie White on Arts Council rows and Ireland’s cultural deficits

Foodie plot twist: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in The Taming of the Shrew

What are some of food’s best cameos in the theatre?

Now We Know: Shakespeare and Shaw weren’t afraid of the foodie plot twist

From the archive

Nina Raine (seated front left) with director Oonagh Murphy (seated front right) and the cast of Tribes. Photograph: Mark Stedman

‘If you’re from a family of writers, everything is fair game’

Peter Crawley

Nina Raine should know. Her father, a critic, once told her: `Your business is not to be worrying about people’s feelings. Because otherwise you will never write'

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Dublin Theatre Festival 2019 Reviews, news and interviews from Ireland’s premier theatre festival

Dublin Fringe Festival 2019 Reviews, news and interviews from the capital's biggest, most diverse festival

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