The gleaming new Grand Canal Theatre in the Docklands may have a kitsch extravagance to it (notably in the outdoor lighting), but it does what it’s supposed to, and does it superbly: the sightlines are excellent, the auditorium a fine blend of tradition and technology, the towering proscenium arch beautifully set. After the indignities of… read more +

Olwen Fouéré is even more beautiful in person. Sitting in tracksuit and cardigan in a light-filled dance studio in Dublin, hurriedly eating a packed lunch, the French-Irish actress exudes a warmth and charisma that belies the often aloof, statuesque roles she plays on stage.

My brother has just launched a new magazine in London called, appropriately, New London Review. (Keen readers will note an entirely accidental similarity to the look of his website.) That reminded me of this book review written for the Irish Times in 2008 that touched upon the story of London’s earlier Modern Review. About three… read more +

Danny Talbot, who died aged 19 last summer, of a suspected drug overdose, while in the HSE aftercare system, was born into circumstances of extraordinary deprivation. His mother, Linda Lamb, was intellectually disabled, and spent much of her life in and out of the care system. She drank heavily, regularly went missing, and had a… read more +

The first week of the Dublin Theatre Festival of 1964 was largely a bleak affair. Reviews in the English papers were mostly negative, and Irish theatre faced “a scramble to survive”, warned the playwright Eugene McCabe.

Thomas Kilroy’s new play for the Abbey is an awkward work, marred by obviousness and by the tired, cumbersome conceit of relying on twentysomethings to play fifteen-year-olds. And yet it is also a foundation myth for 21st century Ireland, eschewing the minor notes of nuance in favour of the major chords of sweeping social drama…. read more +

A century ago, at the Abbey, a young writer mentioned women’s underwear in a new play, and the audience rioted. Fifty years ago, in the Dublin Theatre Festival, a young director staged a play that involved a condom being thrown on stage, and the director was arrested. Then, last year, in the Dublin Fringe Festival,… read more +

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br1ZbkDv3YU&hl=en_US&fs=1&] It is a time of recession, rising unemployment, a growing drugs problem, and Pat Kenny fronting a current affairs programme… Welcome to 1985.

My letter from Dublin in the current issue of Prospect: If there were a phrase to capture the year just passed in Ireland, and perhaps the Celtic Tiger era that preceded it, it must be “mental reservation.” This was the process by which the former archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell, misled people about his… read more +

I’ve been neglecting this site of late but am straining to catch up now. This is a piece on David Hare’s latest play at the National for Le Monde Diplomatique. At the start of David Hare’s play on the financial crisis, The Power of Yes, a character called the Author says: “This isn’t a play”…. read more +