The same week that Seán O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars opened at the Abbey Theatre in February 1926, the Free State government was setting up a “Committee on Evil Literature”. Comprising three laymen and two clergy – Catholic and Protestant – it met for a year before concluding that existing obscenity laws were insufficient … Read more
Fair Deal Abbey Theatre, Dublin ★★★★☆ Liam Doona, set designer of this initially sedate, but ultimately riotous, black farce, can take justifiable pleasure in hearing that the house in which the disagreements play out is, to use a hoary old cliche, “a character in itself”. The yawning interior, every corner scuffed with ancient suffering, contains … Read more
Alison Oliver leaps up from the couch and merrily yells out my name. We had both, apparently, been wondering if, four years ago, I was the first journalist ever to interview her. So it seems. “Your name just popped up and I thought, yeah, I think that was the first one,” she says, bubbling. I … Read more
Scorched Earth Abbey Theatre, Dublin ★★★★☆ The first moments of Scorched Earth explain that a public inquiry into a spate of “land-based crimes” has led to a report highlighting the link between violent crime and ownership of land. Although inspired by John B Keane’s play The Field, it is clear that what is about to … Read more
Brendan Gleeson is to act on stage for the first time in a decade in Dublin this August, in a new production of The Weir, the play written – and now, for the first time, directed – by Conor McPherson. After its four-week run at the 3Olympia Theatre ends, on September 6th, the show, which … Read more
Paul Mescal is to return to the Irish stage to star in A Whistle in the Dark, by Tom Murphy. He will lead the cast of the play, about an Irish emigrant in the English midlands who tries in vain to escape his violent family, when it comes to Dublin in 2027, after opening at … Read more
The cupboard has been bare – or appeared to be bare – for months, but the Abbey Theatre on Tuesday announced an upcoming feast, in the form of a raft of new shows and new Irish writing, lined up until the end of January 2026. Billing the varied and extensive programme “a celebration of epic … Read more
With many announcements still to be made, and several independent companies taking existing productions on the road, it remains to be seen how 2024′s commendably adventurous programming will play out. Will this streak continue? Will some box-office pain influence a return to more familiar material? We choose to be hopeful. The Abbey Theatre’s revival of … Read more