Ireland
Translations, National Theatre review - an Irish classic returns with cascading forceThursday, 31 May 2018
What sort of physical upgrade can a play withstand? That question will have occurred to devotees of Brian Friel's Translations, a play that has thrived in smaller venues (London's Hampstead and Donmar, over time) and had trouble in larger spaces: a... Read more... |
Ian Rickson: 'I'm an introvert, I want to stop talking about myself' - interviewTuesday, 22 May 2018
Ian Rickson’s route into theatre was not conventional. Growing up in south London, he discovered plays largely through reading them as a student at Essex University. During those years he stood on a picketline in the miners’ strike, and proudly... Read more... |
William Trevor: Last Stories review - final intimationsSunday, 20 May 2018
An Irishman who spent more than half a century in London and then Devon, and a prolific writer – nearly 20 novels and novellas, some 20 collections of short stories in varying combinations – William Trevor (1928-2016) is often eulogised as a modern... Read more... |
The Woman in White, BBC One review - camp VictorianaMonday, 23 April 2018
The BBC excels at a very particular kind of drama, namely one where production values overawe dramatic content. Its version of The Woman in White (BBC One) proves no exception. Our hero is Walter, a bemused sappy painter played by ex-Eastender Ben... Read more... |
CD: U2 - Songs of ExperienceThursday, 30 November 2017
When Irish rock band U2 marked the release of 2014’s Songs of Innocence by loading it into everyone’s iTunes for free, it was an attempt to find a new angle on the "event release". While it was certainly that, it wasn’t, shall we say… universally... Read more... |
CD: Martin Hayes Quartet - The Blue RoomThursday, 23 November 2017
Recorded at beautiful Bantry House in the far south-west of Ireland, The Blue Room is the debut of West Clare’s fiddle player extraordinaire Martin Hayes’ new quartet, comprising bass clarinettist Doug Wieseman, viola d’amore player Liz Knowles, and... Read more... |
CD: The Corrs - Jupiter CallingThursday, 09 November 2017
Fresh from their triumphant return to the Royal Albert Hall last month, the Corrs – one of Ireland’s great Nineties exports – are back with a new album, the second since their 2015 comeback, White Light, and the seventh since their 1995 debut,... Read more... |
Tunes of the Munster Pipers review - wondrous collection confounds expectationsSaturday, 07 October 2017
With their contrasting yet entirely complementary timbres and their ability to create textural palettes ranging from lonesome single notes to fulsome chords rich with harmonics, the combination of pipes and fiddle is surely one of the most potent in... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Radiators From SpaceSunday, 27 August 2017
TV Tube Heart, the debut album from The Radiators From Space, was issued on 21 October 1977, a week before the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks. Each was a punk rock album and one, inevitably, has been subjected to greater historical analysis... Read more... |
National Gallery of Ireland review - bigger and betterThursday, 22 June 2017
The marvellous National Gallery of Ireland, founded in the 1860s, has opened its doors to its brilliantly revamped, updated and expanded galleries. As a spectacular bonus in its opening summer, Vermeer and Masters of Genre Painting reposes in the... Read more... |
Kat and Alfie: Redwater, BBC One review – 'EastEnders' spinoff suffers from no fixed identityFriday, 19 May 2017
EastEnders habituees will be familiar with the colourful past of Alfie and (especially) Kat Moon, who have both been AWOL from the mothership since early last year. But they’ve used the time wisely, preparing busily for this new spin-off drama in... Read more... |
The Secret Scripture review - Jim Sheridan's turgid homecomingTuesday, 16 May 2017
It's the church wot done it! That's the unexceptional takeaway proffered by Jim Sheridan's first Irish film in 20 years, which is to say ever since the director of My Left Foot and The Boxer hit the big time. But despite a starry and often glamorous... Read more... |
