Irish myth sucks in influences from Monty Python and Martin McDonagh
Theatre Reviews Tue, Apr 10, 2018
THE ANCIENT saga of Diarmuid and Grainne gets a zestful makeover from Fíbín Theatre Company in an entertaining Town Hall staging of Tóraíocht that is a leap-off for a national tour –rather like the cross-country epic of the play’s hero and heroine.
Read more ...Theatre review: King of the Castle (Druid Theatre Company)
Theatre Reviews Wed, Oct 04, 2017
THOUGH WIDELY acknowledged as one of our foremost writers, Eugene McCabe is also, paradoxically, somewhat unsung. This may be explained by his output being less than prolific, with lengthy gaps where he focused on tending his farm, and that he wrote across different media – stage, television and fiction.
Read more ...Week two GIAF 17 play reviews
Theatre Reviews Thu, Aug 03, 2017
DRUID'S GIAF offering this year was Mark O’Rowe’s unsettling 2003 play Crestfall, directed by Annabelle Comyn. Designer Aedin Cosgrove sets the action in a corrugated red box resembling a shipping container where three female prisoner-protagonists, wearing plain smocks, relate their stories.
Read more ...GIAF 17 Reviews
Theatre Reviews Thu, Jul 27, 2017
A WEEK and a half into the 40th GIAF and the highlight so far for yours truly, and many others, was Kneehigh Theatre Company’s Tristan & Yseult. Emma Rice’s exuberant, funny, romantic and moving take on the story of a medieval love triangle was a joy from start to finish.
Read more ...Tragedy that really packs a punch
Theatre Reviews Wed, Jun 28, 2017
GALWAY COMMUNITY Theatre joined forces with the Town Hall Theatre for its most ambitious show to date, Sean O’Casey’s Juno and The Paycock. It is the first time GCT have tackled one of the classics and, directed skilfully by Andrew Flynn, they did themselves proud.
Read more ...REVIEW: Beyond Therapy (Galway Theatre Workshop)
Theatre Reviews Tue, May 16, 2017
SARAH O'TOOLE'S Galway Theatre Workshop brought Christopher Durang’s sprightly comedy Beyond Therapy to the Town Hall Thetre studio last week for a short but laughter-packed run.
Read more ...Review: Galway Theatre Festival
Theatre Reviews Wed, Apr 26, 2017
ONE OF the most keenly anticipated shows of the 2017 Galway Theatre Festival was Emma O’Grady’s What Good Is Looking Well When You’re Rotten On The Inside? at An Taibhdhearc and it fully lived up to expectations.
Read more ...Theatre review: Spamalot (Twin Productions, Town Hall)
Theatre Reviews Wed, Apr 05, 2017
SEAN AND Brian Powers’ Twin Productions brought a feast of Monty Python-inspired laughter, zaniness, and song to the Town Hall Theatre last week with their lively staging of Broadway smash Spamalot - the musical’s first Irish production.
Read more ...Theatre review: Eternal Youth (Cáca Dána Theatre Company)
Theatre Reviews Tue, Feb 28, 2017
BRIGHT YOUNG things Cáca Dána Theatre Company, formed in Galway just last year, were in the Town Hall Studio recently with their second production; Niamh Ryan’s hugely impressive Eternal Youth.
Read more ...Review: That Same Old Story (Espresso Theatre Company, Town Hall studio)
Theatre Reviews Wed, Feb 22, 2017
GERRY CONNEELY'S Espresso Theatre Company graced the Town Hall studio last week with his warmly funny, Valentine's-appropriate, love-themed musical play That Same Old Story.
Read more ...Druid's The Beauty Queen of Leenane
Theatre Reviews Wed, Sep 21, 2016
LAST WEEK, Druid’s production of Helen and I concluded with the sound of rain pouring down outside the kitchen where the play’s action takes place. The Beauty Queen of Leenane opens with the same sound but where the rain in Helen and I signified release, in Beauty Queen it’s symptomatic of misery and confinement.
Read more ...Siblings picking at the scabs of old psychic wounds
Theatre Reviews Wed, Sep 14, 2016
A DESDERVED standing ovation greeted the conclusion of Helen and I, Meadhbh McHugh’s debut play for Druid at the Mick Lally Theatre, which surely announces the arrival of a fine new Irish writer.
Read more ...Theatre Review: Tape (Fregoli, Nun’s Island Theatre)
Theatre Reviews Wed, Aug 31, 2016
FREGOLI THEATRE has enjoyed a fine 2016 with its successful tour of Jarlath Tivnan’s Pleasure Ground, followed by this latest production, a strong staging of American author Stephen Belber’s intense three-hander, Tape.
Read more ...GIAF16 Theatre Review: Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour
Theatre Reviews Wed, Jul 20, 2016
OUR LADIES of Perpetual Succour is The National Theatre of Scotland's second visit to the Galway International Arts Festival and a raucously entertaining affair it is too.
Read more ...Theatre reviews: GIAF 16 week one
Theatre Reviews Thu, Jul 14, 2016
DYSTOPIAS, ISOLATION, characters on the edge are just some of the recurrent themes that announce themselves in Eoghan O’Tuairisc’s Fornocht do Chonaic/Naked I Saw You at An Taibhdhearc, Enda Walsh’s Arlington [a love story] in Leisureland, and Druid’s new staging of Waiting for Godot.
Read more ...Review: Pleasure Ground (Fregoli Theatre Company)
Theatre Reviews Wed, May 18, 2016
TONIGHT, WEDNESDAY May 18, Galway’s Fregoli Theatre Company wind up its successful national tour of Jarlath Tivnan’s terrific play, Pleasure Ground, at the Town Hall Theatre.
Read more ...Theatre review: The Dead School
Theatre Reviews Thu, Feb 25, 2016
HAVING ENJOYED a sell-out run at last year’s Galway International Arts Festival, Andrew Flynn’s fine production of Pat McCabe’s The Dead School gets a welcome revival this week at the Town Hall.
Read more ...Theatre review: The Great Push
Theatre Reviews Mon, Feb 22, 2016
THE BATTLE of Loos, which raged from late September to mid-October 1915, was one of the bloodiest clashes of the First World War. The British Army lost some 60,000 men in the engagement, with little to show for it when the guns fell silent.
Read more ...Theatre Review: Caucasian Chalk Circle
Theatre Reviews Thu, Feb 18, 2016
IT HAS been many years since Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle has been seen in Galway so this new production, by NUIG and Core Theatre College, is very welcome – all the more so as director Max Hafler and his young cast do a great job.
Read more ...Theatre review: Vernon God Little
Theatre Reviews Wed, Sep 09, 2015
THE MAN sitting behind me laughed uproariously. Volleys and explosions of mirth erupted from other punters nearby. A standing ovation greeted the final curtain. Yet Vernon God Little completely bypassed my own funnybone and that is nothing to do with Decadent’s fine stage adaptation of DBC Pierre’s Booker-winning novel. His brand of humour just doesn’t float my boat.
Read more ...