dublinsThere’s a moment described in Mark O’Rowe’s new play Terminus, where a woman has been battered over the head with a chair. As she comes to, she realises that a man is wanking over her comatose body. That comes as close as I can get to describing the experience of watching this production, the moment [...]
If you enjoy Irish theatre as much as I do, I hope you’ll appreciate my Dublin Theatre Reviews. I was an actor in the eighties, and, at one point in time, I had played on every professional stage in Dublin, from the Project to the Abbey, the Gate to the Gaiety, the Peacock to the [...]
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 [...]
Strolling through the Liberties, in good form with the weather. Getting over a chesty cold, so on the up, spring in my step, cock of the walk. Letter through the door that morning, confirming no nasty virus floats through the veins. Evidently one can lay with dogs and escape lingering fleas; London barrel-scraping can finally [...]
One of the most exciting things about theatre is the immediacy of the experience, the creative tension between performers and audience. It’s a double-edged sword, though, compared to other artistic endeavours – while we may relish the exhilaration of being pinned to our seats and having our senses stimulated, it can also backfire, and a [...]
Brian Merriman, artistic director of the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, revealed something recently about his selection criteria for new plays – he wasn’t going to include a play that was merely a coming out story, it had to be more than that. However, so universal is this peculiar rite of passage for gay people, and [...]
Brian Merriman, artistic director of the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, introduced Who Does She Think She Is? as one of the most radical productions on offer in the festival: the first transgender musical in Ireland. It was a one-off show, on in the back of the Front Lounge, free to all, and done in the [...]
Earlier today, at the enjoyable seminar organized by the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival at Trinity College, Irish Gay Theatre Past and Present, I heard artistic director, Brian Merriman, speak of his passion about the event, and how he believed in the importance of portraying the truth of gay people’s lives in theatre. Much was rightly [...]
Jack the Lad, by Matt Harris, is one of the queerest theatrical experiences I’ve ever enjoyed. Hard-edged, disturbing, sexual, at times baffling, shocking and a little trippy, Harris has mangled the Jack and the Beanstalk children’s story and turned it into a deliciously deviant 75-minute nightmare.This Jack, a practiced, jaded, driven rent-boy, unforgettably played by [...]
On The Sidelines is a heart-warming little gem of a one-man show at The New Theatre. Hailing from Manchester, Andrew Norris has crafted a moving portrait of a Northern English family. In particular, it’s a study in masculinity, and the stresses and strains of an emotionally repressed bachelor son having to look after his [...]
Interesting
