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
Philippa Dunne is back in her old neighbourhood. As a student in Dublin, the Amandaland star rented with a group of girls near the Black Church, close to the Gate Theatre, never imagining as she walked past the theatre every morning that she would one day be on its stage. “That was for real actors. … 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
Towards the turn of the millennium, Conleth Hill, then a theatre actor in his mid-30s, found himself at a juncture. After a decade working regularly in Belfast, he had finished ticking off a list of roles he had had in mind since leaving drama school. It was a period when, against the extraordinary promise of … 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