• Dublin Gay Theatre Festival Preview: Blind Date

    April 29, 2015 - By 

    Less than a month away from staging their company’s second full-length production at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, producer Madeleine Roche and writer/director Colette Cullen of Home You Go Productions sit down to chat about their latest installment, Blind Date. Covering both past success and future aspirations, the pair discuss using theatre to break social boundaries by helping audiences find commonalities.  As gay issues move further into the limelight and touch more lives every day, they find the timing of their piece and the festival as poignant as could be. So tell me about the creative process behind Blind…

  • Hedda Gabler @ Abbey Theatre, Dublin

    April 21, 2015 - By 

    Retelling the story of a woman plagued by unrest and uncertainty, Mark O’Rowe’s adaptation of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler offers an initial presentation of cold austerity. At first glance, from foreboding show poster to spacious set, the makings of stark drama are at hand. However, the uncertainty which tinges the fabric of Ibsen’s anti-heroine ultimately seeps into every aspect of production in the Abbey Theatre’s latest venture, leaving the piece feeling directionless and its audience unguided. On entering the space, the set, designed and dressed by Paul Mahony and Liz Barker respectively, paints an impressionistic portrait dominated by striking visual perspective.…

  • Ben Howard @ 3Arena, Dublin

    April 15, 2015 - By 

    Returning to Dublin after four months on from two-night run at the Olympia, Ben Howard’s sold-out performance at 3Arena would normally indicate momentous progress for a second-album tour. October 2014’s I Forget Where We Were marked a piquant shift toward the sultrier side of Howard’s folk bearings and has captured coveted spots on charts the world over, including number 1 in the singer’s own UK. And yet, as a set list for an arena tour, Howard’s new material simply falls short. The packed crowds of Dublin’s stunning 3Arena broke into wild applause as the house dimmed to welcome Howard’s humble…

  • AAA: The Mighty Stef Album Launch

    April 12, 2015 - By 

    Redemption is a story told intimately well by the tattered glory of rock ‘n’ roll.  At the peak of an atypically hot week in Dublin, hometown hero Stefan Murphy embodied that redemption through a genuine baptism by fire in the sweat-box that is Whelan’s music hall.  Heralding the launch of his new album Year of the Horse, The Mighty Stef, as he’s known to fans, led his band mates through a raucous set, featuring friends old and new, and making a remarkable fresh start in the local legend’s career.  For an hour and a half of warm-up acts, as cult followers…

  • Interview: Dutch Uncles

    April 9, 2015 - By 

    Just under two months from the release of fifth album, O Shudder, and barely into a UK/Ireland tour, Dutch Uncles frontman Duncan Wallis chats to Joe Madsen about performing live, recorded ventures both past and future, and changes in band membership. So how are you guys feeling about the reception and feedback you’re getting on the new album? Interesting question.  I don’t think we’ve thought too much about it, really.  We’re very happy with the reviews.  We weren’t expecting to get so many 4/5’s and 8/10’s because that’s all we got straight across the board with our last album, so we didn’t…

  • Left Behind: Songs of the 1916 Widows @ The Little Museum of Dublin

    March 30, 2015 - By 

    Capping its series of fine wine and classical music in performance, the Little Museum of Dublin has embarked on its own little tradition in its maiden season of Santa Rita Concerts.  Named in honor of the winemakers responsible for the pre-show libations, these evenings boast fireside chats with musicians, often connected with classical label Ergodos Records, followed by their intimate performances in the drawing room of the museum’s grand Georgian house.  To end the season, the floor was given to Ergodos‘ own Michelle O’Rourke this past Wednesday evening.  The enchanting songstress presented a hauntingly graceful set of songs entitled Left Behind: Songs…

  • I ♥ Alice ♥ I @ Project Arts Centre, Dublin

    March 19, 2015 - By 

    “We will be seen.  They will be seen.” Back for a limited engagement at Dublin’s Project Arts Centre, Amy Conroy’s moving production I ♥ Alice ♥ I returns to its hometown for another run with specific aims in mind.  Teaming up with Marriage Equality, Conroy’s own HotForTheatre productions is reviving yet another run of the world-traveled piece for just four nights, marking 2015 as the five-year epoch since premiering at Dublin Fringe Festival 2010.  Awards and accolades decorate the show’s success, including a Fishamble for Conroy’s writing.  Yet the story of these two ladies, these two lovers, these two Alices,…

  • No Monster Club Album Launch @ Bello Bar, Dublin

    March 16, 2015 - By 

    “I never break any strings in rehearsal… but when we’re live, I break every string in the book.” I’ve never been in rehearsal with No Monster Club yet I found myself pleasantly unsurprised when frontman Bobby Aherne made this observation Saturday night at the launch party for his new album, People Are Weird. Staged in the basement of Dublin’s Bello Bar, the choice in venue captured an absurdity that could only be matched by the dry humour of Aherne’s lyrics. This stale 70’s smoking parlour boasts wooden panels, low ceilings, and a revival art-deco aesthetic that’s dying to be in some…

  • PALS: The Irish at Gallipoli @ National Museum of Ireland, Dublin

    February 26, 2015 - By 

    A bleak Irish sky backdrops the frigid Collin’s Barracks, former military stronghold turned national museum turned proscenium for ANU Productions’ breathtaking new performance PALS.  Born out of the financial collapse in 2009, ANU (pronounced “anew”) has boldly challenged Irish theatre to tackle Irish issues in visceral ways, turning its site-specific method of performance into a niche, accessible, and affordable outlet for the Dublin theatre-going public. ANU’s total-immersion style of theatre forces audiences not only to witness a story, but to experience its place as an integral element of the narrative.  2012’s Boys of Foley Street revived a time and place…

  • Q+A: A Place To Bury Strangers

    February 23, 2015 - By 

    Amid preparations for a three-month tour of the US and Europe, A Place to Bury Strangers‘ front man Oliver Ackermann chats to Joe Madsen about the release of their fourth album, Transfixiation, and their years as a changing act in a niche genre. APTBS to come to Dublin on March 31 and Belfast the following night. APTBS has gone through quite a few changes over the past decade, shifting band members, management, and labels through its stages. How do you feel the band has changed or grown through all these developments? I think it’s allowed us to become more focused on exactly…