Stage Reviews
Le Maschere at Wexford Festival Opera 2024: Brave effort to animate Mascagni’s hugely problematic work doesn’t really come off
Italian operagoers were unimpressed when Le Maschere premiered in 1901. It remains textually and musically verbose with little grip of character or plot
Murmur: The young audience gasp and laugh, mesmerised by this playful, inventive performance
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Camiel Corneille weaves together sound and movement as he builds physical characters and imaginary worlds
Content: Hate speech, revenge porn and an exploding dog – A gripping portrayal of the human cost of sanitising social media
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Ross Dungan’s darkly comic play blends live illustration and multimedia with the theatrical to explore the disturbing world of content moderation
Global Desires: Flashes of brilliance, but this performance art leaves a sense of disruption and discomfort
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Outlandish Theatre’s nine performers explore what happens when desire rubs up against an unpleasant reality
The Jesus Trilogy: Beautifully textured adaptation captures all the sadness and mystery of JM Coetzee’s novels
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Annabelle Comyn’s evocative production, featuring Fergal McElherron and Elaine O’Dwyer, makes clever, convincing choices
Find Your Eyes: ‘Oh Lord, will it be like this all the way through?’ we ask at first. But this tricky piece rewards surrender
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: In this unclassifiable performance piece, Benji Reid creates a seductive amalgam of theatre, choreography and photography
Freefalling: A wild, extraordinary story that you couldn’t make up
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Georgina Miller’s account of her recent life mixes daredevil adrenaline with humour and a lightness of touch
Safe House: Enda Walsh’s new work is an oppressively desolate song cycle
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Kate Gilmore is impressive as a vulnerable young woman, but parts of the staging overwhelm her character
Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Pan Pan’s loose retelling of Shakespeare contains flashes of real artistry
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Manuel Zschunke is particularly compelling as the paranoid king Leontes in an uneven reimagining of The Winter’s Tale
Breaking: Two characters, four actors and a rotating series of scenes, emotions and meanings
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: In Amy Kidd’s play, actors of different genders, races, backgrounds and accents portray the same unhappy couple
Guest Host Stranger Ghost: A genuinely original high concept gets its first outing
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: This nomadic play’s use of other productions’ sets mirrors the insecure tenures so many young people are forced to put up with
Sandpaper on Sunburn: A humorous, compelling portrayal of what it means to be neurodivergent
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: David Horan’s family drama dives head first into the topic of autism
Home, Boys, Home: Dermot Bolger’s heartbreaking, witty script is also a powerful commentary on family, society and morality
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Ray Yeates, Fionnuala Gygax and Donna Anita Nikolaisen star in the final part of a trilogy that began with In High Germany
Trifled: Bawdy, fun, line-crossing modern romance in which everyone needs saving
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Caitlin Magnall-Kearns’s play reminds us that we don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors
Béatrice et Bénédict: A mischievous, playful Fiona Shaw brings extra energy to Berlioz’s opera
Opera: Conductor Ryan McAdams draws lively, fresh playing to a concert performance featuring Paula Murrihy, Anna Devin and Niamh O’Sullivan
Darkmatter: A freaky, oozy horror dance
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: The Dutch choreographer Cherish Menzo’s eventful piece has a frightening otherworldliness
Molly Sweeney: Brian Friel revival features fine performances and elegant staging
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Andrew Flynn’s production, with Genevieve Hulme-Beaman, Denis Conway and Manus Halligan, makes up for play’s slight staticness
Agreement: No play about the Good Friday negotiations has the right to be this much fun
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Owen McCafferty’s writing cuts through the Belfast peace talks’ seriousness to find levity in personal stakes and political bluster
Grace: A moving depiction of the complex way a girl with autism experiences life
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Eleanor Walsh gives a delicate performance in Jody O’Neill’s gentle drama
Starjazzer: Affecting, innovative Anu adaptation marries a put-upon O’Casey heroine with her equally abused granddaughter
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Louise Lowe’s socially conscious production tells two stories at once, putting an unusual theatrical space to creative use
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