Posted on March 26, 2012 by Darren
Produced by Rough Magic, Arthur Riordan returns his celebrated musical to the Irish stage. An artistic collaboration between the writer and musicians Bell Helicopter, Improbable Frequency is a delightful little farce set during “the Emergency.” The wonderfully madcap little espionage music metaphysical meditation premiered over half-a-decade ago, and has toured the world. I think it certainly deserves to be measured as one of our most distinctly and cleverly Irish of theatrical exports. It’s insane, it’s over-the-top, it’s hard-to-pin-down and it’s also more than a little bit brilliant.
Schrodinger's a cool cat...
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: Arthur Riordan, Aviation, Bell Helicopter, Brian O'Nolan, business, General Electric, Helicopter, Improbable Frequency, Ireland, irish, Irish Free State, Irish language, John Betjeman, Riordan, Textron, Transportation and Logistics, Very Important Person | Leave a comment »
Posted on March 20, 2012 by Darren
There’s something very charming about the rat-tat-tat nature of Tiny Plays for Ireland. A collection of short pieces by a variety of new and established talent, not every chapter in Fishamble’s latest production is perfect. Some are even quite weak. However, the quick turnover means that there’s a new and better drama unfolding on stage in the time it takes to toast a slice of bread. While there are some weaker segments, some of these short plays are charming, some are endearing, some are genuinely moving. Some leave you longing for just a little bit more, and some feeljust right.
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: art, arts, audition, Bill Withers, christopher walken, Culture of Ireland, dublin, Flag of Ireland, france, Ireland, irish times, Leprechaun, Lovely Day, Nation, Saint Patrick, Saint Patrick's Day, Scotland, United States | Leave a comment »
Posted on March 5, 2012 by Darren
London Classic Theatre have brought Sir Peter Shaffer’s classic 1973 play to the Mill Theatre in Dundrum, and I had the pleasure of attending on Friday night. I must admit that it was my first time to see Equus, although I couldn’t help but be aware of the headline-grabbing aspects of the play. I wonder exactly how much work Daniel Radcliffe has done to popularise the play, using a West End run as an attempt to divorce himself from his most iconic role, and the media revelling at the details of the show. While I was impressed with what London Classic Theatrebrought to the stage, I couldn’t help but be disappointed by the play itself.
Easy rider...
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: arts, Cruelty to animals, daniel radcliffe, dundrum, england, Equus, horse, Hyundai Equus, London, london theatre company, malcolm james, Performing Arts, Peter Schaffer, Peter Shaffer, plays, the mill (theatre), Theatre | Leave a comment »
Posted on February 3, 2012 by Darren
The Opera Theatre Company is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary by touring the country with a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Perhaps one of the most well-known and accessible operas, I do have to praise the cast and crew for bringing it to life. The production design is lavish and the vocal talent is impressive, even if there were one or two logistical problems to do with the staging in the Sam Beckett Theatre in Trinity College Dublin.
Sing no evil...
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: Freemasonry, Magic Flute, Mozart, Opera, Opera Ireland, Opera Theatre Company, Sam Beckett, Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 2 Comments »
Posted on January 30, 2012 by Darren
It’s hard to fault Dirty Dancing Live, the latest in a long line of screen-to-stage translations of popular works. It’s not exactly bold, or challenging, or excessively original – but the stage show has a sense of style that fits the material, and an ensemble who can really move. Between that and a handsome leading man in Paul-Michael Jones, it should have everything necessary to satisfy the target audience – even if it won’t really convert to many skeptics.
Try to catch him dancin' dirty...
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: arts, Dirty Dancign Live, dirty dancing, grand canal theatre, Johnny Castle, Lady Gaga, Manchester, Patrick Swayze, Paul-Michael Jones, star wars, United States | Leave a comment »
Posted on January 2, 2012 by Darren
Jimmy Fay’s version of The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui was one of the highlights of the past few years at the Abbey, so seeing the director handle Nokolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector is an interesting premise. While Fay handles the play wonderfully well, with a (mostly) solid cast and superb staging choices, I can’t help but feel that Roddy Doyle’s translation of the play is just a bit “on the nose”, striving for a bit of forced relevance with countless references to “brown paper envelopes.” Perhaps the best indication of the show comes from the wonderful inset in the programme, illustrated in a pleasant enough style by Irish Times cartoonist M. Turner – a mock-up cut-out selection that includes mock-up heads of Bertie Ahern and Charlie Haughey. One senses that the production might have had a bit more bite a few years back.
Family values...
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: abbey theate, bertie ahern, corruption, Fianna Fáil, Government Inspector, graft, Ireland, irish, irish times, play, Roddy Doyle, the abbey theatre, The Government Inspector, Theatre | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 17, 2011 by Darren
Peer Gynt can be a daunting play to put on. Running at five hours, it’s a show that tests your audience’s bladder control at least as much as their patience. Still, it’s one of those absolutely wonderful fantasy stories that demands retelling and reimagining, with a wonderfully raw quality to it as it is passed down and filtered through countless interpretations. Rough Magic have produced a rather wonderful version of the story as part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival, playing at Belvedere College. It an impressive and engaging take on a classic story, working off a new version by writer Arthur Riordan.
Peerless?
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: arts, Belvedere College, dublin, fiction, Henrik Ibsen, humour, Peer Gynt, Theatre, Ulster Bank | Leave a comment »
Posted on September 30, 2011 by Darren
Donka: A Letter to Chekhov is a rather wonderful addition to the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival. Between this and the Absolut Fringe, theatre-lovers have been quite spoilt of late – I’m still looking forward to checking out Peer Gynt by Rough Magic in the next week or so. Donka: A Letter to Chekhov is a rather wonderful and imaginative little show loosely connected by vignettes inspired by or related to the works of Anton Chekhov, as written and directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca, who also wrote and directed Corteo for Cirque de Soliel. It’ really rather wonderful and magical.
All going accordian to plan...
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: Anton Chekhov, arts, Blake Morrison, Chekhov, Cirque de Soliel, Corteo, Daniele Finzi Pasca, Donka, Donka: A Letter to Chekhov, literature, Peer Gynt, Performing Arts, Russian, Stage, Theatre, Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival, World Literature | 3 Comments »
Posted on September 29, 2011 by Darren
I had the chance to check out the new Batman Live stage show at the O2 (the Point) this evening, fresh off the british leg of its world tour. It was very much Batmanas camp pantomime, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it is, after all, a show to bring the whole family to. Still, I couldn’t help wondering if the show was looking to the wrong sources for inspiration. After all, batman has been many things to many people over his seventy years of existence, so there’s a lot of stuff to draw on no matter what angle you choose to take. So I found it quite a bit strange that the stage show opted to draw on Tim Burton’s darkly gothic Gotham when offering light family entertainment, especially when one suspects the Adam West iteration of the character might have suited the tone of the material better.
Joker's wild...
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: adam west, batman, batman forever, batman live, dick grayson, joker, o2, robin, the point, tim burton, Tony Zucco | 2 Comments »
Posted on September 17, 2011 by Darren
If you see one show at the Dublin Fringe, see Man of Valour. If you see two shows, see Man of Valour twice. If you see three shows… well, maybe you should see something else the third time, for variety’s sake. Man of Valour is easily one of the most energetic and exciting pieces of theatre I’ve seen all year, with superb direction and a fantastically impressive leading man, it really feels like the lovechild of a one-man show with a big-budget action movie.
A man-ic performance...
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: absolut dublin fringe, absolut fringe, arts, dublin, Paul Reid, Performing Arts, samuel beckett theatre, the corn exhange, Theatre | Leave a comment »
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