A selection of excerpts from the final book in Edna O’Brien’s acclaimed trilogy, The Country Girls. Childhood friends Kate and Baba have long since left their rural lives and are now in 1960s London, via Dublin. Hoping for happiness or something close to it, they endeavour to find love and a meal or two along the way. Kate (Katie O’Kelly)…
Tag: The New Theatre
Review: The Plot
Lilith isn’t seeking asylum, nor is she homeless is the physical sense, yet she is in need of safety and somewhere to rest in peace. Having died by suicide over 100 years ago she was buried in an unmarked grave, deemed undeserving of a proper ceremony for her alleged sin. Lilith’s death was a complex move to reclaim her own…
Review: The Signalman
In a grim rail side hut a lonesome signalman tends to his duties. An unexpected visitor, keen to learn about the signalman’s job, all but invites himself in. At first tentative and somewhat fearful, the signalman eventually relinquishes to the visitor’s request for information. The visitor, a physician looking for a quieter life, soon realises that all is not what…
Review: Extremities
In a quiet New Jersey farmhouse, somewhere between Princeton and Trenton, Marjorie idles the day away. Her boredom is broken by a wasp sting but little does she realise that this heralds the beginning of day that will change her life forever. The arrival of a stranger to her home, allegedly wanting to make a phone call, soon turns sinister…
Review: After the End
A work night out turns to disaster following an explosion of both words and warheads. An alleged terrorist nuclear bomb has taken out part of the city but colleagues Mark and Louise fortuitously escaped the blast. That’s according to Mark. Louise can’t remember the horrific explosion that has left most of their office friends dead. Luckily for them Mark…
Review: Happy Birthday Jacob
After being recently deserted by their alcoholic father and long abandoned by their mother, Jacob and his brother Lucas try to maintain a low profile as they avoid detection by social services. Jacob (Stephen O’Leary) is about to turn 18 and feels if they can lie low until his birthday then he will be able to obtain custody of his…
Review: Running With Dinosaurs
This review was originally written for The Reviews Hub. Writer: Nadine Flynn Director: Lee Wilson Jay is a young Dubliner, living with his mother and siblings in an overcrowded flat in the city. Much to Jay’s objection his grandfather has recently been shipped off to a nursing home to give the family a bit more space, leaving Jay as the…
Review: Happy Birthday Jacob
In the not-so-distant past, 17 year old Jacob (Sean Basil Crawford) cares for his younger brother Lucas (Finian Duff Lennon). They have been long abandoned by their mother and more recently by their alcoholic father. Jacob attempts to maintain their tiny family unit but struggles between being a brother and a de facto father to his younger sibling. They…
Review: The Voice Factox [X]
This review was originally written for The Reviews Hub. Quincy (Michael-David McKernan) is entered into a reality singing contest, The Voice Factor as a joke by his friends. The point of the contest, which is admittedly a rip-off of several other singing contests, is to focus on singer-songwriting talent rather than simply vocals. What Quincy’s friends do not realise it…
Review: Dubliners Women
This review was originally written for The Reviews Hub. James Joyce’s Dubliners, a collection of 15 short stories, is arguably one of his most accessible works with simple and realistic accounts that explore the world of Edwardian Dublin. In this adaption by Katie O’Kelly, as the title suggests, the focus is on the female characters in three of Joyce’s short…
David Keane 