Tag Archives: Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival 2009

Review: Tales of Ballycumber by Sebastian Barry at the Abbey Theatre

  By darraghdoyle | October 12, 2009 - 2:38 pm | The Arts, The Culch, Theatre
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You may remember me talking about the stage. You may remember the playwright talking about the play. You may have entered to win tickets. You may have seen it mentioned as we talked about the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival 2009. What you should do though is go see The Tales of Ballycumber by Sebastian Barry and starring Stephen Rea at the Abbey Theatre, playing until November 7 2009. I was lucky enough to be invited to the opening night last Wednesday and one of the most gratifying things was to hear the gasp of amazement and impressed silence as people saw Mike Britton‘s set for the first time. I realise the irony of course of including the photo above but you really have to know that the set without actors, without lighting, without that expectant hum of the audience, without the opening strains of the song at the start … There’s more →

What is art? - The Pitmen Painters in The Gaiety Theatre

  By Darren Byrne | October 9, 2009 - 8:23 pm | The Arts, The Culch, Theatre
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It’s times like these I realise what an amateur I actually am, when I find it hard to sum up the right words and phrases to say how great something is. Before I go on with this review, let me first say, trust me, The Pitmen Painters is a play everyone should see. It runs tomorrow afternoon at 2.30 and tomorrow night at 7.30 in The Gaiety Theatre as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival and I believe there are limited tickets still available. I can’t recommend it enough. Written by Lee Hall (who wrote Billy Elliot) and based on a non-fiction novel by William Feaver, The Pitmen Painters tells the story of a working men’s group in 1930′s Britain who try to break the monotony of the mines through extracurricular classes. The Ashington Group employ the art appreciation lecturer, Robert Lyon, to teach them about art, admitting that they … There’s more →

KAMP at the Samuel Beckett Theatre - an amazing piece of drama with no dialogue

  By darraghdoyle | September 30, 2009 - 4:57 pm | The Culch
2 Comments

I attended the opening night of KAMP, part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival 2009 last night. This is what they say it’s about: An enormous model of Auschwitz takes up the whole stage with crowded huts, a railway line, and a gate with the slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei”. The model of the camp comes to life with thousands of 8cm high hand-made puppets, representing the prisoners and their executioners. The actors, like colossal war correspondents, weave through the scene with hand-held cameras. They film the atrocities. The audience becomes witness. Not a word is spoken, the audience only experiences the sights and sounds, which transcend the powerlessness of the figures into much more than a mere reporting of events. It is, quite simply, amazing. Performed by Herman Helle, Pauline Kalker and Arlène Hoornweg has three amazing attributes that make it worth seeing: The camera angles The sounds The … There’s more →

Conor McPherson’s “The Birds” at the Gate Theatre

  By darraghdoyle | September 28, 2009 - 7:37 pm | Featured Post, Performance Art, The Arts, The Culch, Theatre
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When asked during his Culture Night Q&A if he was afraid of the reaction of people who had come along to see the play expecting to see a version of the movie made for the stage, playwright Conor McPherson laughed and admitted “Not until now.“ From the celebrated author of such masterworks as Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and My Cousin Rachel, comes Daphne Du Maurier’s enthralling gothic tale of mystery and suspense. Immortalised by Alfred Hitchcock in his legendary film and now re-imagined in a chilling new adaptation by acclaimed Irish playwright Conor McPherson (The Weir, Dublin Carol, Come On Over, Port Authority and Shining City), The Birds is an unrelenting and spellbinding portrait of terror and alienation. His new play, a production of Daphne DuMaurier’s short story The Birds is currently showing at the Gate Theatre as part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival and it’s as far away … There’s more →

The Manganiyar Seduction at the Dublin Theatre Festival

  By darraghdoyle | September 28, 2009 - 6:31 pm | The Culch
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Direct from the deserts of Rajasthan, the Festival is delighted to welcome the most colourful, joyous and inspiring show likely to be seen this year. To be honest, if you’d told me what The Manganiyar Seduction at the Gaiety Theatre was going to be - or had tried to describe it to me - I’d have said “Ah, no, thanks very much though.” So I’ll describe it for you. It’s over 40 Indian males sitting in a big grid lit by light bulbs, some playing stringed instruments, some beating drums, none of them really dancing and a lot of them singing and chanting. For two hours. In Indian. What do you think? Sound like your sort of thing? I’ll tell you though - it’s fantastically brilliant. It started so so simply and basically and rises to this huge celebration of passion, of words, of music and of rhythm. Just magical.

Liberty Hall lit up on Wednesday as part of the Playhouse project

  By darraghdoyle | August 28, 2009 - 10:22 am | Events, Featured Post, The Culch
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I posted the other day about the Playhouse project as part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival. I was at the launch on Wednesday and took a short, shaky video of how it looked from the Temple Bar Gallery. It’s shaky, it’s at double speed and it’s got a dodgy tune, but Liberty Hall itself looked amazing. Part of me wished I’d known nothing about it beforehand and was just walking over O’ Connell Bridge and spotted it. Like the 100 people or so there I was mesmerised. I cannot wait to see what creativity gets broadcast from the building onto the city skyline.