Reviews

The Man in the Woman’s Shoes by Mikel Murfi

Reviewed by Christina Hunt Mahony on 08 May 2013 1 - 30 May, 2013 in Pavilion Theatre

Mikel Murfi’s one-man show, The Man in the Woman’s Shoes, is the imaginative product of his interviewing older people in the area of which he is a native. Murfi’s script gives voice to cobbler Pat Farnon, whom the town considers mute. A childhood trauma is hinted at, but Pat prefers...

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Bug by Tracy Letts

Reviewed by Liam Heylin on 06 May 2013 6 - 11 May, 2013 in Half Moon Theatre, Cork

BrokenCrow theatre company are making their mark with a decent new production that gets right under the skin of an interesting American play. It is probably a compliment to say that the experience of watching Bug gets itchier as it goes on. Tracy Letts’s play offers its own perspective on a territory...

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Bankers by Brian McAvera

Reviewed by Susan Conley on 02 May 2013 in The New Theatre

It’s pompous v. pedantic inBankers, Brian McAvera’s polemic about the general state of the financial system in recent times. The Focus Theatre production can’t be faulted for contemporary aptness, but several elements inherent in the presentation of the conflict interfered with the...

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Love, Billy by Graham Reid

Reviewed by Terence Blain on 01 May 2013 1 – 25 May, 2013 in The Lyric Theatre, Belfast

Time heals, they say. Not in the Martin family, it doesn’t: twenty-five years after leaving Belfast inexplicably, the errant Billy returns, unleashing in his father and three sisters the emotions, fears and frustrations coiled to snapping point in the quarter-century of his absence. A can of worms...

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Croí á Mhúscailt | Awakening a Heart by Branar

Reviewed by Helen Cusack on 24 April 2013 24 April - 7 June (on tour) in the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire

“Lá amháin, Daideo wasn't in his chair anymore.” Branar presents a deeply moving and artistic portrayal of loss and childhood in their latest production, Croí á Mhúscailt | Awakening a Heart. Inspired by an image from Oliver Jeffers' picturebook, The Heart and the Bottle, Croí á Mhúscailt...

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The Factory Girls by Frank McGuinness

Reviewed by Lauren Graffin on 24 April 2013 24 April - 1 June, 2013 (on tour) in City Factory, Derry

The Factory Girls, written by Frank McGuinness and directed by Catriona McLaughlin, tells the story of five women who, faced with the threat of redundancy, stage a lock-in, hoping to reclaim power from the men “upstairs”. As the audience is ushered into a disused factory in Derry/Londonderry...

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Richard II by William Shakespeare

Reviewed by Harvey O'Brien on 24 April 2013 23 April - 4 May, 2013 in the Peacock Theatre

Shakespeare didn’t really write about Ireland. It features in Richard II, yes, and there it serves a measure of narrative and contextual function. It’s a kind of tipping point in the fate of the King (Patrick Moy). Having failed to successfully mediate in a domestic dispute between his cousin...

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The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs by Mike Daisey

Reviewed by Jesse Weaver on 22 April 2013 15 - 27 April 2013 in the Viking Theatre, Clontarf

‘Documentary theatre’ can be a problematic term for describing a problematic mode of performance. The ‘documentary’ part of this term suggests fact-checked reportage that holds up to scrutiny when its veracity is questioned, while the ‘theatre’ part suggests the realm...

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Digging for Fire by Declan Hughes

Reviewed by Donald Mahoney on 22 April 2013 22 April - 4 May, 2013 in Project Arts Centre

Declan Hughes was right. It may not be a playwright’s duty to predict the course of a country via his own writing, but it doesn’t hurt a play’s vitality. When Rough Magic first produced Digging for Fire in the Project Arts Centre in 1991, audiences were given a glimpse of a convulsive...

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The Bridge Below the Town by Patrick McCabe

Reviewed by Miriam Haughton on 20 April 2013 in Roscommon Arts Centre

What are the colours of dreams, or, nightmares? Does one remember a colour, or, only a feeling? Patrick McCabe’s new play The Bridge Below the Town, directed by Padraic McIntyre for Livin' Dred, stages the disorientation and irrational fluidity that is most commonly associated with the narratives...

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