• Interview: Pan Narrans Theatre Company

    September 17, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of Culture Night Belfast 2015 (Friday, September 18), Gavin Turtle speaks to Pan Narrans Theatre Company about their upcoming street performance of How these Desperate Men Talk, starting a theatre company in Belfast and Culture Night. Pan Narrans is a Belfast based theatre company started by actor Michael Patrick and director Oisin Kearney. Stills from How these Desperate Men Talk Hi guys. How did you start working together? Oisin: We did 4 Samuel Beckett plays in Cambridge which went well. We were surprised how easy it was. This was 2010. The next year we said “let’s put on a…

  • The Shadow of a Gunman @ Lyric Theatre

    May 8, 2015 - By 

    As the curtain, a modest, brown thing, rises to reveal its equally meager setting (a tenement in Dublin in 1920) the most immediately apparent quality of the set is how much it breathes. Two large windows at the back of the small apartment looking on to the alley beyond create so much space and character that its easy to forget we are in a theatre. A woman hangs her washing, people walk to and fro about their business and the set comes to life. Mr. Davoren lives in this apartment, rooming with Mr. Shields. Hampered by the characters that exist…

  • I, Banquo @ Lyric Theatre, Belfast

    April 22, 2015 - By 

    Written by Tim Crouch, I, Banquo is a retelling of Macbeth from the perspective of his dead friend Banquo. As the play begins the ghost of the titular character rises from the floor and tells us his version of events, from the fateful meeting with the three sisters to the gruesome finale. Banquo addresses us as Macbeth and asks us to question our own motives and desires along with the other characters in the play and leaves us wondering if perhaps we’ve misunderstood. Directed by Oisin Kearney and performed by Michael Patrick, the pair take a low-budget approach and use…

  • Blue Jasmine

    October 10, 2013 - By 

    “This song was playing when we first met, do you know it?” On the surface Blue Jasmine is a portrait of a woman trying to climb back up the social and economic ladder into a life that she had the express elevator to beforehand. But beneath this and beneath the surface of every character in the film there is so much more to find. Woody Allen provides a view into a world that, for most us, is alien in almost every way. Yet through the strength of the writing and brilliant structure of the film, we immediately feel comfortable there,…

  • Insidious: Chapter 2

    September 20, 2013 - By 

    “So that’s what that was about.” When a film contains a piece of dialogue that’s as offensively condescending to its audience as that, it’s going to be hard to take seriously. But perhaps Insidious: Chapter 2 isn’t meant to be. While most of the film stays true to its shock-horror roots, things jumping out of closets and screeching violins intending to jolt the viewer, the film is dotted with moments of comedy. Some of these are intentional and, unfortunately, ultimately jarring while serving no purpose other than to remove all of the tension from many, many otherwise great moments. Inversely,…