radiosNeil Bartlett first grabbed my attention in the Project Theatre nearly twenty years ago in his production of Sarrasine, a scintillating reworking of a Balzac story, a dangerous, haunting and inspirational piece of musical theatre. I saw it twice and the poster adorned the walls of several of my flats for years afterwards. Bartlett’s perspective [...]
Romeo and Juliet pitched at the bebo generation is a risky proposition. Ever since Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film for the e generation, theatrical productions which aim to give this teen tragedy a contemporary feel, and reach new, younger audiences, have a hard act to follow. But, given the power of this play, it should survive [...]
I was a member of the actors’ co-operative that produced Marina Carr’s first play, Low in the Dark. With astonishing confidence, the 25 year old Marina came in every morning to our rehearsal space, a freezing near-derelict warehouse in Temple Bar, with two or three typed pages of freshly-minted script for us to work on. [...]
All Over Town by Phillip McMahon, which finishes its run at the Project theatre tonight, is a thoroughly enjoyable one-man show. Billed oddly as a “mixed-media show” (does an offstage voice on a loudspeaker count?) this is a simple, lively, engaging account of a 20 year old Irish lad and his escape from the “shithole” [...]
Leonardo da Vinci was a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. One of his great works, the notebook called the Codex Leicester, is on display in Dublin at the moment. I went along to re-acquaint myself with a man I haven’t really considered since school, and I found myself in [...]
The Crucible is a big play about big themes. It addresses weighty issues such as faith and superstition, collective hysteria and paranoia, the price of integrity, the explosive anarchic power of repressed sexuality, the cost of infidelity, and the way scapegoats serve to maintain social order and bolster shaky notions of piety. Not having seen [...]
I’m looking forward to being in Dublin in May for the first time since the annual International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival started in 2004. There are some plays in the programme I have high hopes for.
Of particular interest to me will be Jack, The Lad, a rent boy’s journey of self-discovery, Dream Man which is [...]
I love listening to Marian Finucane’s radio show. This morning she was talking to Nell McCafferty, who is recovering from a bypass operation, and is only twelve months on from losing her mother. I was saddened to hear Nell speak of her ambivalence about whether or not she wanted to live, having a cigarette yesterday, [...]
Am really looking forward to the RTÉ Beckett 100 festival. There’s something about Samuel Beckett’s world that invariably tingles my spine.
Interesting
