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 +

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.

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 +

Karl Shiels was very nearly famous. Eleven years ago, he was cast in a new play by an obscure young playwright that was to open the new theatre in Tallaght. Shiels starred alongside Aidan Kelly; the playwright was Mark O’Rowe and the play was Howie the Rookie, and it was the most ferocious piece of… read more +

“I was a convicted criminal at the age of two.” Michael Kennedy, a costumier by trade, has a story to tell. “I was found wandering in Killenaule, Tipperary.” Soft-spoken and gentle mannered, Kennedy spent his working life backstage at the best theatres and opera houses. But that’s not the story. “My mother had died, and… read more +

This is re-posted here to tie in with next week’s column, on the forthcoming production of Rough by Grace Dyas at the Axis Ballymun. Originally published in Village, 2007. On the evening of May 21, 1957, a Garda Inspector arrived at 18a Herbert Lane, an old coach house on a laneway off Baggot St in… read more +