Posted on November 24, 2012 by Darren
So, a Catholic and a Protestant walk into a bar. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Quietly is a fascinating exploration of the Troubles from writer Owen McCafferty and director Jimmy Fay. While it’s often very difficult to translate the real life conflict into art – in many respects, it’s too real and too recent and too raw for us to process fully at this point – Quietly does an excellent job capturing the necessary steps forward for those affected by (and involved in) violence in the North. The result is a truly fascinating piece of theatre, and something well worth seeing during it’s run at the Peacock stage.
Picture by Anthony Woods…
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: abbey, catholic, Guthrie Theater, Northern Ireland, Owen McCafferty, peacock, peacock theatre, Peafowl, Protestantism, Religion and Spirituality, Troubles, Ulster Plantation | Leave a comment »
Posted on April 16, 2012 by Darren
I had the pleasure of catching Alice in Funderland at the Abbey Theatre on Friday night. An attempt to playfully recast Lewis Carroll’s iconic story against the backdrop of modern Dublin, it is – for most of its runtime – an enjoyable high-energy experience with a cheeky charm and a winning wit. It is, however, just a little bit uneven – especially in its first act. In fact, the play works much better indulging its delightful appetite for the insane and the surreal, instead of attempting to offer rather blunt commentary on the political and social character of modern Ireland.
Alice? Who the %@#! is Alice?
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: abbey, abbey theatre, Alice, alice in funderland, alice in wonderland, Cork, Cork GAA, dubin, dublin, Ireland, Jack Phelan, lewis carroll, Mark O'Regan, Naomi Wilkinson, Sarah Greene, thisispopbaby | Leave a comment »
Posted on June 13, 2011 by Darren
I think it’s safe to say that George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion has had quite the impact on popular culture. Even those unfamiliar with the original 1912 play written by the great Irish playwright will know the basic structure of the story, filtered down through countless reruns of My Fair Lady and She’s All That. It’s hard to argue that anything in Shaw’s impressive back catalogue is quite as crowd-pleasing, but never at the expense of being sharp and provocative. The fact that it’s turning out to be next-to-impossible to get a seat at the Abbey’s run of the play indicates that the work has lost none of its appeal.
Doolittle doctored?
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: abbey, abbey theatre, Basil Fawlty, charlie murphy, dublin, eliza doolittle, george bernard shaw, Henry Sweet, John Cleese, monty python, professor higgins, pygmalion, review, Risteárd Cooper, the abbey theatre, theatre review | Leave a comment »
Posted on April 11, 2011 by Darren
The Passing is one of the new plays from Paul Mercier playing at the Abbey, alternating with Mercier’s other new work, East Pier. The Passing is essentially a story about how disconnected we’ve grown as a nation, out of touch with one another, and our roots. It’s the type of reflection that one sees frequently these days, so it seems reasonable to expect any material covering the theme to try to approach it in a novel or an interesting way. Instead, The Passing is just about passable as an exploration of social isolation in 21st century Ireland.
Pass on this one?
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: abbey, abbey theatre, arts, disconnected, dublin, passing, Paul Mercier, Performing Arts, society, the abbey, the abbey theatre, the passing, Theatre | Leave a comment »
Posted on April 24, 2010 by Darren
Myself and the better half had the pleasure of taking in a show in the national theatre last night. Director Jimmy Fay has brought Shakespeare’s MacBeth, the play known in the industry as “the Scottish play”, to the stage. I studied MacBeth in secondary school, as one of the big four tragedies. I would have rather studied Othello or Hamlet, but at least it wasn’t King Lear. We had high hopes in settling into our seats for the full performance – Fay had brought The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui to the stage only last year in a show that remains perhaps my favourite of all the plays I have seen at the Abbey. Did MacBeth live up to those expectations?
"Something wicked this way comes..."
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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: abbey, aidan kelly, dublin, eileen walsh, jimmy fay, macbeth, macbeth at the abbey, play, review, shakespeare, the abbey, the abbey theatre, Theatre | 3 Comments »
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