A look at what is happening in the world of the arts.

The Birthday Party Show

The Sugar Club, Dublin

Precisely nine years ago, a punter on the festival circuit might have taken a chance on an unknown yet daring theatre company, buoyed only by the fact that they were staging an established play. This year, that same punter might have taken a chance on an unknown play, buoyed only by the fact that it was being staged by an established yet daring theatre company.

As Corn Exchange marked 10 years in theatre with a once-off, secret production, the joy of discovering Tennessee Williams hauled once again through Commedia dell'arte in Streetcar had the transgressive fun of a company returning to the scene of the crime.

Closer to Looney Tunes than 16th-century Italian improv, director Annie Ryan's take on Commedia may seem a blunt tool with which to prise open the substance and subtext of Williams's classic - but it works. Tony Flynn's marvellous Blanche, a bruised flower against the dangling menace of Dominic West's Stanley, the over-amped sexuality of Ryan's Stella and archetypal awkwardness of Andrew Bennett's Mitch each somehow honour the material while casting it in a subversive new light.

Reissuing previous accomplishments might smack of nostalgia, but there's nothing like a nice surprise. Thankfully, The Corn Exchange is still full of them.

Peter Crawley

The Worlds of Fingerman

The Ark

Right from the first few moments of seeing Peruvian mime artists Ines and Gabriella use their hands and arms to create birds in flight and then swans in motion, we know we are in for a rare experience of theatre.

The gentle music flows as the two performers from Gaia Teatro huddle together to witness the birth of Fingerman. His nimble body is formed from the thumb and first two fingers of Ines's hand (the other fingers cleverly remain hidden under a black glove) and his adventures begin as he tentatively climbs up Gabriella's leg, walks along her arm. The children in the audience giggle in delight.

From then on, adults and children are drawn into Fingerman's tiny world - his exploits on rough seas (Gabriella lies flat on the floor, creating waves with her body through subtle yoga-like movements), his meeting with a fingerwoman in the Garden of Eden and his journeys with his horse through mountainous terrain (Gabriella's body again becomes the stage for these adventures).

All in all, it is an extraordinary show, even if some of the nuances were lost on some of the younger members of the audience. The children leave the theatre, calmed by the completely non-verbal nature of the show, subconsciously storing up images that may well inspire them later in their lives.

Until Sun, various times

Sylvia Thompson

Short Stories

The Ark

The house lights drop, the theatre pulses with potentially lethal nine- and 10-year-olds baying for entertainment. In the seat in front of ours a very young lady, pre-programmed for total boredom, resignedly puts away her lip gloss as a mime in a black bowler hat walks into the spotlight. The Ark is currently playing host to Teatro Hugo and Ines, from Peru, who are presenting Short Stories, a mesmerically beautiful and astonishingly dexterous piece of physical theatre.

The short stories of the title are created by two technically brilliant mimes, one male, one female, who, with seemingly limitless imagination, two pairs of hands and feet, a couple of old shirts, some plastic eyeballs, one boisterously vehement knee and (to the gasps of astonishment from the now rapt young audience) one extraordinarily flexible stomach, concoct a series of memorable and spirited characters.

From the miniature baby with the hugely engaging personality (created from the back of a performer's hand), to the ageing gentleman with the crumpled toothless face observing his decay in a hand-held mirror, or the weight-obsessed, beak-nosed woman pursing her scarlet lips (which are painted around the actor's navel), it was difficult to accept the incontrovertible evidence of one's own eyes that this massive cast was entirely assembled from body parts.

Throw the PSP into the bath and get down to the Ark pronto.

Until Sun, various times

Hilary Fannin