When I think back on the 20 years I’ve called Dublin city my home, I’m smothered in delicious, nostalgic and frenetic memories. Dragging camping chairs on to the roof of the apartment building in Stoneybatter to watch the sunset. Walking, or rather sliding, to work on North Wall Quay at 6am during a Big Snow. … Read more
The Crucible Gaiety Theatre, Dublin ★★★☆☆ Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play about the perils of moral panic, groupthink and superstition. But, as its title suggests, it is also about the civilisational importance of fire in a literal sense. The characters’ lives are dominated by wood: buying it, growing it, fighting over it. Arson … Read more
“Try to keep your cool,” my 16-year-old daughter instructed as I left the house to interview Andrew McCarthy. The night before we had rewatched one of his most enduring movies from the 1980s, Pretty in Pink. That movie turns 40 years old this year, but the universal language of teenage longing is so perfectly expressed … 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