The Irish Times

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

Stage
Donald Clarke
September 22, 2018, 05:00

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

Aaron Monaghan and Garry Hynes. ‘

Sympathy for the devil: how DruidShakespeare got to the soul of Richard III

Stage
Peter Crawley
September 17, 2018, 16:58

For director Garry Hynes, the desire to portray this tortured king goes back years

For Saoirse: the tireless Eric O’Brien plays Craner in Colm Keegan’s play. Photograph: Babs Daly

For Saoirse review: Well worth travelling up Dublin’s Champs-Élysées to see

Stage
Donald Clarke
September 20, 2018, 11:56

Dublin Fringe Festival: Colm Keegan’s Ballymun odyssey rarely takes an expected turn

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?

Stage
Peter Crawley
September 19, 2018, 05:00

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

Xnthony will perform his new show ‘Confirmation’ at this year’s Dublin Fringe Festival.

The magic and loss of coming out in rural Ireland

Stage
Patrick Kelleher
September 10, 2018, 05:00

Dublin Fringe Festival: Performer’s new show is about growning up gay in Roscommon

Aran Murphy in Hamnet, at the Samuel Beckett Theatre

To see or not to see: ‘Hamnet’ is this week’s must-see theatre highlight

Stage
Peter Crawley
September 1, 2018, 05:00

Dead Centre’s brilliant one-boy show in Dublin, and all the drama of Electric Picnic

Good Vibrations: the full-throated spirit of punk is alive and roaring in the Lyric Theatre auditorium

Good Vibrations review: Fast pace, high energy and sardonic good humour

Stage
Fionola Meredith
September 6, 2018, 11:25

This stage version of Terri Hooley’s story makes the transition from film with style

Michael West’s new version of Frankenstein for Theatre Lovett is a similarly elegant re-animation, or, to use his term, “mutation”.

Frnkstn review: A mutation of man and monster

Stage
Peter Crawley
August 22, 2018, 14:45

Michael West’s new version of Frankenstein wonders if the scientist and monster are now one and the same

John Connors: “I went home to my mother and said, ‘What’s a knacker?’ And I could just see the dread in her face.” Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill

John Connors: ‘Acting ... killed my depression on the spot’

Stage
Patrick Freyne
September 1, 2018, 05:00

The Love/Hate actor on creativity, anti-Traveller bias, and being too outspoken

Oona Doherty’s Hard to Be Soft – A Belfast Prayer at Dublin Dance Festival. PR photograph: Luca Truffarelli

In the new theatre space, there’s no room for an emotional vacuum

Stage
Joe Devlin
August 25, 2018, 05:00

We’re seeing a revolution in form in theatre, but content is what keeps audiences engaged

Don Wycherley, My Real Life, Viking Theatre, Clontarf, Dublin

High Theatre: the critic’s choice of works

Stage
Peter Crawley
August 18, 2018, 05:00

Michael West’s Frankenstein adaption and a Wexford man without promise of a future

Jarlath Tivnan, Maria McDermottroe and Pat Shortt in Martin McDonagh’s “A Skull in Connemara” directed by Andrew Flynn, Decadent Theatre. Photograph: Darragh Kane

A Skull in Connemara review: Rich drama of perverse satisfaction

Stage
Sara Keating
August 16, 2018, 14:42

Decadent Theatre’s production draws out darkness of McDonagh’s Gothic work

Theatre Lovett’s ‘Frnknstn’ by Michael West, at the Abbey Theatre from August 17th to September 1st. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh

So you think you know the story of Frankenstein?

Stage
Sara Keating
August 16, 2018, 05:00

‘Frnkstn’, at the Abbey Theatre, reanimates the monster for a new generation

The young lovers defy their wheezing elders in both deed and fashion sense, subverting berets and army camouflage with insurgent colours and punk tartan

A Midsummer Night’s Dream laced with glee, invention and a shiver of anxiety

Stage
Peter Crawley
August 13, 2018, 12:26

Review: Lynne Parker directs an Irish take on Shakespeare at Kilkenny Arts Festival

Mullered and Skullit: Liam Carney and Phillip Judge in Two Pints

Skull two pints in Connemara: this week’s theatre highlights

Stage
Peter Crawley
August 11, 2018, 05:00

Pat Shortt stars in the second of Martin McDonagh’s Leenane Trilogy; Roddy Doyle’s barfly banter gets a human face with Liam Carney and Phillip Judge

Lynne Parker: “Mischief is a really big part of theatre-making. Once you get pious and restricted you’re not going to have the fluidity that you need.”

It's a kind of magic: electric midsummer night's dreams in Kilkenny Castle

Stage
Peter Crawley
August 4, 2018, 05:00

Rough Magic is recharging itself with a new young company and an electrifying take on Shakespeare

The Lonesome West review: A tale of anarchic rural communities

Stage
Mary Leland
August 3, 2018, 09:55

Crude hilarity arises from casual revelations- why is the Catholic church so forgiving of murder and so punitive of suicide

Rough Magic’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Shakespeare’s summer sensation: This week’s theatre highlights

Stage
Peter Crawley
August 4, 2018, 05:00

Rough Magic’s high-voltage staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream addresses climate change, while Jim Cartwright’s ‘Two’ is more than the sum of its parts

Subscriber Only

Stage Reviews

Subscribe on iTunes

Follow on Soundcloud

Listen on Stitcher

Most Read in Culture

Lily Allen: reading her memoir feels like spending time with a ridiculous, outrageous friend. Photograph: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

My Thoughts Exactly by Lily Allen: a strangely persuasive read

Always getting better? Michael O’Leary decided to re-engineer Ryanair by improving its customer service. Illustration: Paul Ryder

Inside Ryanair: Michael O’Leary’s making of a ‘nicer’ airline

In her prime: a youthful Whitney Houston on stage in June 1988. Photograph: RDA/Getty Images

The sad, secret life of Whitney Houston

Glenn Close: “You start out and it’s just one rejection after another. You have to be really tough. You have to believe.” Photograph: Tony Cenicola/NYT

Glenn Close: ‘I spent a lot of years not being my full self’

Is Donny (Steve Buscemi) a figment of Walter’s imagination? That is just, like, your opinion, man

Rugs, drugs and war: The Big Lebowski abides, 20 years on

Not so super Mario? An artist’s impression of Little Donald. Photograph: Nintendo

Is it acceptable to laugh at Donald Trump’s mushroom?

Christ Pantocrator (Christ in Glory) depicted in this 10th-century Byzantine enamel plaque in the Museo Lazaro Galdiano, Madrid, Spain. Photograph: Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images

What did Jesus really look like, as a Jew in 1st-century Judaea?

Julien Baker: “Even though Cologne and Berlin are large, they’re very walkable.” Photograph: Alena Schmick

Julien Baker: On My Culture Radar

Gabriel Byrne: ‘Weinstein was intensely disliked, but he had such power.’ Photograph: Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Gabriel Byrne on Weinstein: ‘He was a violent bully. He had such power’

Ashley Blaine Featherson and Logan Browning in the US Netflix comedy ‘Dear White People’, which explores the dynamics of modern race relations. Photograph: Eddy Chen/Netflix

Can you be racist against white people?

Real news has value

Sign In

Forgot Password?

Sign Out