GIAF Reviews: Dead Dog in a Suitcase, Epiphany

Theatre Reviews Thu, Jul 25, 2019

KNEEHIGH THEATRE Company's Dead Dog In A Suitcase was one of the hottest tickets at this year's Galway International Arts Festival. Adapted by Carl Grose and composer Charles Hazlewood, it was a raucous adaptation of John Gay’s 18th century classic, The Beggar’s Opera.

Gripping thriller Spotless comes to Town Hall

Theatre Reviews Thu, Apr 25, 2019

Emma Willis, from The Young Offenders, and Ciara O’Callaghan, from Fair City, co-star in Gary Duggan’s potent new play, Spotless, which comes to the Town Hall, for one performance only, on Thursday May 2.

Looking back on a flurry of locally produced plays

Theatre Reviews Tue, Apr 02, 2019

A FLURRY of locally-produced plays have graced Galway’s stages over the past few weeks, the most of impressive of them being Brú Theatre’s Selvage at the Mick Lally Theatre, written and performed by James Riordan and deftly directed by Lara Campbell.

Wake gives voice to female voicelessness

Theatre Reviews Tue, Feb 19, 2019

HANS CHRISTIAN Andersen’s The Little Mermaid was first published in 1837 and since then it has inspired countless adaptations in print, film, TV and theatre. The latest is Deirdre Sullivan’s dark west of Ireland spin on the story, Wake.

Theatre highlights of 2018

Theatre Reviews Thu, Dec 27, 2018

AND SO ends another year of theatre-going, a year of big shows, small shows, professional shows, amateur shows, local shows, and visiting shows. Rather than doing a general review of the year past, I shall focus on the shows I enjoyed most from those I saw.

Holy Mary 'a pure joy and a delightful night out'

Theatre Reviews Thu, Nov 08, 2018

Playgoers are in for a treat next week when Eoin Colfer’s achingly funny comedy, Holy Mary, comes to the Town Hall on Tuesday, November 13, at 8pm.

A reunion of four stalled lives

Theatre Reviews Tue, Oct 16, 2018

THE THEME of the returned emigrant has driven landmark Irish plays such as John B Keane’s The Field, Brian Friel’s The Loves Of Cass Maguire, and Tom Murphy’s Conversations On A Homecoming.

The 'luminous, life affirming' songs of Padraig Stevens

Theatre Reviews Mon, Sep 03, 2018

ON SATURDAY evening I finally made it to one of the Ollie Jennings-run Druid Sessions in the Mick Lally Theatre which have been proving a big hit with gig-goers over the past few months. This was the fifth gig in the series and featured Padraig Stevens with Leo Moran.

Theatre reviews: Shelter, Furniture, Baoite, Wit

Theatre Reviews Wed, Jul 25, 2018

Shelter and Furniture (Druid Theatre Co, Mick Lally Theatre)

The life of Una Taaffe and a young man's struggle with MS

Theatre Reviews Wed, May 09, 2018

TWO LOCALLY-devised works in progress proved big hits with Tuesday’s Galway Theatre Festival audiences - Conor Geoghegan’s Invisible at Nuns Island and Elaine Mears’ Una at the Mick Lally Theatre. Both are already strong pieces of theatre and certainly whetted the appetite to see them in their finished forms.

An 'inventive' and 'charming' Little Prince

Theatre Reviews Wed, May 09, 2018

THE LAST time I saw Morgan Creative in action was with its imaginative staging of Crime and Punishment at Druid’s Mick Lally Theatre eight months ago. This week the company returned to the Mick Lally Theatre for the Galway Theatre Festival with another a literary classic - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince.

Theatre Review: The Hired Man

Theatre Reviews Wed, May 02, 2018

LAST NIGHT, Tuesday May 1, at the Black Box Theatre, Galway Musical Society presented the opening night of its terrific production of the musical, The Hired Man, based on Melvyn Bragg's stirring novel of Cumbrian rural and industrial working life in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Irish myth sucks in influences from Monty Python and Martin McDonagh

Theatre Reviews Tue, Apr 10, 2018

THE ANCIENT saga of Diarmuid and Grainne gets a zestful makeover from Fíbín Theatre Company in an entertaining Town Hall staging of Tóraíocht that is a leap-off for a national tour –rather like the cross-country epic of the play’s hero and heroine.

Theatre review: King of the Castle (Druid Theatre Company)

Theatre Reviews Wed, Oct 04, 2017

THOUGH WIDELY acknowledged as one of our foremost writers, Eugene McCabe is also, paradoxically, somewhat unsung. This may be explained by his output being less than prolific, with lengthy gaps where he focused on tending his farm, and that he wrote across different media – stage, television and fiction.

Week two GIAF 17 play reviews

Theatre Reviews Thu, Aug 03, 2017

DRUID'S GIAF offering this year was Mark O’Rowe’s unsettling 2003 play Crestfall, directed by Annabelle Comyn. Designer Aedin Cosgrove sets the action in a corrugated red box resembling a shipping container where three female prisoner-protagonists, wearing plain smocks, relate their stories.

GIAF 17 Reviews

Theatre Reviews Thu, Jul 27, 2017

A WEEK and a half into the 40th GIAF and the highlight so far for yours truly, and many others, was Kneehigh Theatre Company’s Tristan & Yseult. Emma Rice’s exuberant, funny, romantic and moving take on the story of a medieval love triangle was a joy from start to finish.

Tragedy that really packs a punch

Theatre Reviews Wed, Jun 28, 2017

GALWAY COMMUNITY Theatre joined forces with the Town Hall Theatre for its most ambitious show to date, Sean O’Casey’s Juno and The Paycock. It is the first time GCT have tackled one of the classics and, directed skilfully by Andrew Flynn, they did themselves proud.

REVIEW: Beyond Therapy (Galway Theatre Workshop)

Theatre Reviews Tue, May 16, 2017

SARAH O'TOOLE'S Galway Theatre Workshop brought Christopher Durang’s sprightly comedy Beyond Therapy to the Town Hall Thetre studio last week for a short but laughter-packed run.

Review: Galway Theatre Festival

Theatre Reviews Wed, Apr 26, 2017

ONE OF the most keenly anticipated shows of the 2017 Galway Theatre Festival was Emma O’Grady’s What Good Is Looking Well When You’re Rotten On The Inside? at An Taibhdhearc and it fully lived up to expectations.

Theatre review: Spamalot (Twin Productions, Town Hall)

Theatre Reviews Wed, Apr 05, 2017

SEAN AND Brian Powers’ Twin Productions brought a feast of Monty Python-inspired laughter, zaniness, and song to the Town Hall Theatre last week with their lively staging of Broadway smash Spamalot - the musical’s first Irish production.

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