West has created a brilliant collage/homage to the beginnings of Irish drama, a play that bristles with theatricality. Dublin by Lamplight features 30 characters played by six actors, each wearing a “fixed painted mask” a la commedia. Further commedia influence is evident … Continue reading →

These six performers are so charming and so well-directed that even some of the running jokes, which can only be fully understood by those with a good understanding of Irish history, are nevertheless funny. Delaney and McLenigan work together like … Continue reading →

The ensemble is so multi-talented, well balanced and generous to one another, I’d be hard pressed to call out any single actor. Energy and focus are sustained, varied Irish dialects are intriguing and intelligible, mime is consistently specific and skilled … Continue reading →

At 80 minutes, there isn’t an inch of fat on this play. Its trajectory is unstoppable. That it was a first time effort (2007) is astonishing. Playwright Sean McLoughlin has created two galvanizing characters with bruising histories groping for contact … Continue reading →

Show aired Sunday, September 18 on “SundayArts” as part of Channel 13′s SundayArts News, a weekly on-air, online arts and culture showcase. Check out the podcast online here.

“A Night With George” is billed as “a working-class Belfast woman’s improbable connection” with Mr. Clooney, the handsome, funny, smart and clearly unattainable movie star. It is supposedly the true story of Donna O’Connor’s night on the town with him. True. … Continue reading →

Brigit, the recovering addict at the heart of Deirdre Kinahan’s “BogBoy,” having its United States premiere as part of the 1st Irish Theater Festival, has the kind of voice that stays with you. Combative and wry, she can make the simplest things … Continue reading →

1st Irish 2011, the world’s only all-Irish theatre festival, hits the midway point this weekend with all eight plays-in-competition running simultaneously, and the festival’s panels and special events set to begin next week. Coordinated by the New York-based Origin Theatre … Continue reading →

Highlights: Watching audience members double over in laughter at flying greenery, spit carrots and onion sex “a peel.”…Landry’s maniacal facial expressions. There’s something scary — and funny — there. Read more

Cirque de Légume, from Sligo, presents  two off-beat clowns.  The one-hour romp gives us a sort of sweet guy (Jaimie Carswell) and a nervous, occasionally fierce woman(Nancy Trotter Landry) in a puffy sleeved Green dress-romper, both with red noses, going through a series of … Continue reading →