Looking back on theatre 2012

Theatre Reviews Thu, Dec 27, 2012

As the Renmore Panto prepares to see out 2012 in its usual colourful style, for the rest of Galway’s theatre community it’s time to pack away the greasepaint, well-thumbed scripts, and assorted props and costumes, and reflect upon another year of enterprising and imaginative dramatic activity. It has been a year with some indelible highlights, both from locally-based companies and visiting ensembles, and continuing displays of commitment, energy, and imagination from the city’s smaller and emergent troupes which itself merits a standing ovation given the straitened financial circumstances under which they operate.

Gun Metal Grey returns

Theatre Reviews Thu, Oct 18, 2012

NEXT WEEK in the Town Hall sees the welcome return of Mick Donnellan’s Gun Metal Grey from the tireless Truman Town Theatre.

Theatre review: Sanctuary (Blue Teapot Theatre Company)

Thu, Oct 11, 2012

THE TICKLISH subject of sexual and romantic relationships between intellectually disabled people receives a sensitive and thought-provoking treatment in Christian O’Reilly’s fine new play Sanctuary, presented by Blue Teapot Theatre Company.

Society at large might like to pretend ID individuals are asexual or untroubled by desires for shared intimacy but this is not the case. Yet their scope for exploring such needs is greatly curtailed by the care systems, whether familial or institutional, in which they live – it is illegal, for instance, for an ID couple to have sex unless they are married.

Theatre reviews: Galway Arts Festival

Thu, Jul 26, 2012

EDWARD HALL’S all-male Propeller theatre company have become firm Galway Arts Festival favourites in recent years and they deliver the goods yet again with Henry V at the Black Box in a staging that is brimful of verve and brio.

Theatre reviews: Galway Arts Festival

Thu, Jul 19, 2012

JULIAN GOUGH’S The Great Goat Bubble first saw the light of day as an article for The Financial Times in 2003.

Cúirt theatre reviews - Perve and Breathing Corpses

Thu, Apr 26, 2012

AS PART of the Cúirt festival, the Nuns Island Theatre is hosting a theatrical double bill featuring work from two rising stars of today’s generation of playwrights - Stacy Gregg and Laura Wade.

In Gregg’s Perve, which is being staged by NUI Galway BA Connect, young film-maker Gethin (Sam Serry) is making a film on society’s behaviour toward paedophiles. He prompts his sister to start a schoolyard rumour about himself as a way of illustrating how accusations of sexual deviance can be fuelled as much by baseless hysteria as hard fact.

Carthaginians’ ‘sense of hope and release’

Theatre Reviews Thu, Feb 23, 2012

FRANK MCGUINNESS’ powerful play Carthaginians, written as an elegy for the dead of Bloody Sunday, comes to the Town Hall Theatre next week in a new production from Derry’s Millennium Forum directed by one of Ireland’s best known actors, Adrian Dunbar.

Theatre review: Faith Healer

Thu, Sep 01, 2011

THE WAY in which memory shapes our identities and the way in which we in turn shape our memories, selecting this detail and altering that, have been recurrent themes in the work of Brian Friel and nowhere more so than in his great play Faith Healer, currently running at the Town Hall.

Theatre review: The Silver Tassie

Thu, Sep 02, 2010

DRUID HAVE taken on some challenging productions in recent years, with works like the epic DruidSynge cycle and Eugene O’Neill’s searing classic Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

Arts festival theatre reviews

Thu, Jul 22, 2010

UNCLE VANYA - Among the highlights of this year’s Galway Arts Festival so far was the visit of Bristol Old Vic and Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory with their wonderful co-production of Chekov’s Uncle Vanya.

Festival theatre reviews

Thu, Jul 15, 2010

Penelope
From James Joyce to Derek Walcott and the Coen Brothers, Homer’s Odyssey has proved a rich source of inspiration to artists down the ages.

Theatre review: Burn The Bad Lamp and Yellow Moon

Thu, Apr 22, 2010

CÚIRT 2010’s event-packed programme features two plays, Burn the Bad Lamp and Yellow Moon both of which run throughout the week.

Theatre review: The Mikado

Thu, Mar 18, 2010

THE PATRICIAN Musical Society’s production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado, held last week in the Town Hall Theatre, was a feast of colour, fun, and wonderful songs.

Theatre reviews: Galway Arts Festival

Thu, Jul 23, 2009

WEEK ONE of the Galway Arts Festival delivered some memorable productions from both home-based and visiting companies in plays that dealt with such diverse themes as familial neuroses, under-age sex, the Iraq war, murderous teenagers, and a property tycoon who wants to sing like Beniamino Gigli.

Theatre review: Galway Arts Festival

Thu, Jul 24, 2008

Farber Foundry: Molora
SOUTH AFRICA’S Farber Foundry provided an early highlight of this year’s festival with the first-week staging of Molora, director-author Yael Farber’s adaptation of The Oresteia.

Theatre review: New Electric Ballroom (Druid Theatre Co)

Thu, Jul 17, 2008

DRUID’S EXCITING Galway Arts Festival season of Enda Walsh work got off to a compelling start on Monday with the Irish premiere of his “coiled, dark, glitter-dusted fable”, The New Electric Ballroom, which Walsh also directed.

E-paper

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