'Dancing at Lughnasa' at the Mill

Last night half our V form went to the Mill Theatre in Dundrum to see Rathfarnham Theatre Group's production of Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa, which V are studying for their comparative module (the rest go tonight). An amateur production, it has a good deal going for it, being quick-paced and solidly acted: worth seeing if you're studying the play at the moment.

Review of 'A Christmas Carol'

Here's a review by John Clarke from First Form, following their recent visit to the Gate Theatre:

On Wednesday, 9 December, I Form went to see John Mortimer's adaptation of Dickens's A Christmas Carol at the Gate theatre. The production was directed by Alan Stanford.

I thought the set was very realistic: it consisted of a brick wall and a fireplace with many entrances and an old Victorian door on the right. The backdrop occasionally opened up to reveal shop windows in London. The brilliant Victorian top hats, gowns, dresses, tail-coats, cloaks and rags also set the scene well and it was evidently a busy winter's night in a London street.

I had previously seen Stephen Brennan in Noel Coward's Present Laughter. In both of his performances as the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present, he was hilarious.

Paul Nolan, playing one of the chorus London boys, used his carolling voice brilliantly and played a big part in making the stage performance realistic. I felt excited and proud to see him up there having known him for six years.

My favourite scene was Mr Fezziwig's ball as I thought the dancing and the laughter of the excited ladies and gentlemen was amusing and really enjoyable to watch. It was just as I had imagined it in the book.

I was rather disappointed by the scene with Marley's ghost. Although it was exciting and the ghost made me shiver, the narrators standing openly in the background spoiled the sense of Scrooge being utterly alone.

I thought the play overall was very good and it respected the book well. The Ghost of Christmas Present was very funny because of his childish character and plump figure. He was the highlight of the show. I think the book was complicated and some scenes were more exciting in theatrical performance, yet others couldn't live up to the standard of Dickens.

I would recommend this to adults and to people who have read the novel for both are thrilling and after reading the book, the play is more understandable.


[In this afternoon's College Carol Service, Mr Girdham will be reading an extract from the book].

A Christmas Carol

Tomorrow, Mr Jameson and Mr Swift are taking all I form pupils to the Gate Theatre matinee performance of Dickens's A Christmas Carol, which they have been studying in class. In the words of the Gate website:

"Back by popular demand, Dickens’s timeless classic of the true spirit of Christmas at the Gate. The famous tale of Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from embittered skinflint to generous benefactor has delighted audiences for generations. With the return of all the much loved characters – miserly Scrooge, the loving Cratchits, Tiny Tim and the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come – A Christmas Carol is a must for all the family."

Read Bruce Arnold's positive review in the Irish Independent here.

'Stones' and Yeats

Two expeditions are taking place today - as part of their TY Programme, our Transition Year head to the Civic Theatre to see Stones in his Pockets, the two-hander featuring Simon Delaney and Conor Delaney (left). And Mr Girdham's VI form set are taking a tour of the Yeats exhibition at the National Library; other sets will be visiting it in due course.

NT Live

Above, the trailer for the National Theatre's production of All's Well That Ends Well, which we'll be seeing on Thursday 1st October (see last week's post).

All's Well That Ends Well

The College Shakespeare Society was founded to promote Shakespeare's work within the College; we've put on productions of the plays, and try to see anything good that's on in Dublin (including, last year, The Winter's Tale and The Comedy of Errors). We're planning a trip to the National Theatre of London live telecast of All's Well That Ends Well at Dundrum cinema on Thursday 1st October (above the whole text seen via Wordle. Click on it for a closer look). Pupils, please give names to Fiona Boyd.

Read reviews from the Guardian, the Times and the Evening Standard here at the NT site.

All My Sons review

Transition Year and III form have now both been to see the Gate Theatre's production of Arthur Miller's tragedy All My Sons. Among the Junior Cert pupils to go last week was Michael Kemp, who reviews it below:-

Reading play scripts before seeing the play is the exact same as reading the book before the movie. I had already envisioned how it should be played, the timing and setting all in my head and thus prepared myself to be appalled by any motion not in sync with my vision. My vision was wrong though.

I think that All My Sons is a play that will only work with the right cast, although this production pulled it off marginally.

The portrayals of Joe and Kate were flawless and fully deserved their standing ovation, Joe especially simply for making Keller's transformation from family man to the angry, confused and guilt-ridden character that dominates the final act, seem so real and human. Unfortunately, Chris could not pull this off.

The actor certainly played it well at the start but as he needed to be more dramatically unhinged; he became fidgety and lost his restraint, perhaps uncomfortable with how he was supposed to attack Joe.

I won't go into too much detail about the supportting cast but even though I imagined them differently, they were all good, especially George and Annie, whose chemistry electrified the second act after a slow beginning.

The set was authentic though I found the lighting scheme to be a little jokey [George is sad so put him under a blue light, but now he is happy, get him under an orange light!] but it worked although it distracted me a little.

But the general lighting was superb, and especially the deep orange flooding the stage as the sun sets. I won't give too much detail about the sets because as long as they are there, they do their job but the set designers did well to give Keller's home a 'Lived In' look with old wood and a seemingly overgrown garden.

All the things I found annoying in this adaptation are subjective to every person. For example, some of the things that I would see differently were: Jim's too old to be Chris' s friend, Sue wasn't old enough, and Kate seemed weaker than she was supposed to be. Many seemed too concerned with keeping their accents in check than expressing their emotions.

Although it sounds like I thought it was a poor production, that's not true at all, I'm simply nit-picking. I was slightly confused at the start, mainly because the characters were so upbeat and jokey, contrasting so heavily with their true selves, but I soon got it. Like the best suburban dramas, All My Sons shows the gloss and rose-tinted memories that suburbia promises and provides, yet dig a little deeper and the play reveals the dark heart that beats behind the forced smiles and the tragedy that is the American Dream.


[Go here for links to press reviews]

III form Scholarship

This morning eight Junior Cert pupils start two days of scholarship papers with English; they are being tested on an unseen poem (Eileen Sheehan's 'Waking') and the opening of Julia Kelly's novel With My Lazy Eye (go here for an interview and review on RTE's 'The View'). Then they write a literary essay recommending a book, and comparing it to others.

This evening, all our III formers will be attending the Gate Theatre's production of All My Sons: we'll have reviews here in due course.

Start of Trinity Term

Pupils return to school today for the start of the very busy Trinity Term. In English, ahead of us are of course the Leaving and Junior Certificate exams, starting on Wednesday 3rd June.

Also, shortly we will have the results of the Senior and Junior Poetry Prizes; the Shakespeare Prize exam; theatre visits to The Comedy of Errors and All My Sons; posting of Transition Year Work Portfolio material; the Transition Year English Evening; the Voices of Poetry evening; the TY Actiontrack Week; plenty of podcasts (which started yesterday with a Macbeth revision recording); a visit and talk by Professor Terry Dolan, as well as a podcast interview with him about Geoffrey Chaucer; regular Poems of the Week; and plenty more...

All My Sons

Arthur Miller's early play, All My Sons, is a feature of our Junior Certificate course, and a new production, directed by Robin Lefèvre, has just opened at the Gate Theatre. Our III and IV forms will be going to see it in May.

In today's Irish Independent, Bruce Arnold wrote that it 'surpassed all my expectations in a production of great power, simplicity and purity ... the single setting, with its clapboard house and almost claustrophobic garden, seems closed in on the audience, drawing them into the heart of the play's action and holding them, in the last scene, quite spellbound.' More here.

In today's Irish Times, Peter Crawley writes that 'Robin Lefèvre’s new production for the Gate is certainly faithful to the play, which is to say that it is inevitably uneven, reaching moments of intense dramatic heat created by some peerless performances, while also dipping into airless pockets of leaden significance. That’s the consequence of taking Miller at his word. One look at Liz Ascroft’s set, a beautifully detailed but slavishly realistic American backyard, lets you know you’re in for a very straight reading.' More here.

On Monday, Arminta Wallace had a long feature in the IT about Len Cariou, who plays the central character Joe Keller.

The Comedy of Errors

Our Shakespeare Society will be going on its second theatre outing of the year on April 27th, to the Abbey Theatre production of Shakespeare's first and shortest play, The Comedy of Errors (produced here in 2000), directed by Jason Byrne, who also directed the Julius Caesar we saw in 2007. At the bottom is the Abbey's trailer.

In the Irish Times, Peter Crawley, here, calls the production 'self-aware', and writes that 'with bad debts and easy credit undermining society, the play comes off as a fierce economic satire. Any similarity to our own situation is purely intentional. That shiver of recognition makes the head-smacking contrivances, the zany gags and the cast’s witty embellishments all the sharper. And though Byrne often seems busy deconstructing the jokes, letting the opening scene become an unpardonable snore, everything that follows is good, edgy fun.'

There's also an enthusiastic review here in the Independent, which calls it 'an exuberant, affectionate job ... respectful without being reverential, and quite wonderfully physical and fast-moving.'

In yesterday's Sunday Times, Declan Burke wrote that 'bare brick, mobile scaffolding and contemporary costuming set the tone for Jason Byrne's postmodern take ... Peter Daly (as Dromio of Syracuse) and Ciaran O'Brien (as Dromio of Ephesus) steal the show with two superb comic performances.'

Second Age King Lear

The Second Age production of our V form single text, King Lear, is reviewed today by Sara Keating in the Irish Times here, after its opening at the Wexford Opera House. All our V form will be seeing the production at the Helix Theatre on March 20th.

She writes :- Second Age Theatre’s latest production for secondary school audiences is a stylish, energetic and unconventional King Lear. Directed by Donnacadh O’Briain, it offers a coherent vision of Shakespeare’s characters and themes, while avoiding the easy clichés associated with the canonical tragedy: there is not a white beard in sight.

The proceedings begin with the ritual beat of a drum, the resonant oilcan-echo silencing the cavernous auditorium of Wexford’s Opera House. Michael Vale’s industrial scaffolded design evokes a factory setting. Lear’s kingdom might well be a manufacturing one, but as the play proceeds and the bodies pile up it begins to resemble an abattoir.

Cube outing

Tonight, the Shakespeare Society has its outing to the Classic Stage Ireland production of The Winter's Tale in the Cube (Project Arts Centre). Go to last Wednesday's post for a review, and comments/reviews from the Irish Independent, RTE, the Sunday Business Post, the Irish Times and the Sunday Times.

The Shakespeare Society always grabs a chance to see any available productions in Dublin. The next planned expedition is to the Abbey Theatre's Comedy of Errors at the start of next term, directed by Jason Byrne.

The Winter's Tale

On Monday a group of senior pupils will be going to the Classic Stage Ireland production of Shakespeare's late 'romance' The Winter's Tale at the Cube in the Project Arts Centre. Mr Girdham will give a short introduction to the play in Adare on Friday evening.

This play of strange juxtapositions (captured in the double posters of Leontes and Autolycus) is not produced often, and so is well worth catching. The intensity of the opening Act (Othello re-written as Greek tragedy) comes across particularly well in the small Cube space, notably in Chris Heaney's performance as King Leontes of Sicily. Unlike Othello's, this jealousy explodes from nowhere, and is thus a different challenge for the actor, but Heaney certainly gets across his character's catastrophic disintegration. Audrey McCoy also expresses effectively his wife Hermione's bewilderment and, at the end of the play, her tender love (the famously extraordinary restoration scene is genuinely moving).

There is also a solid performance by Neil Hogan as Camillo and a strong one by Lesa Thurman as Paulina, Hermione's friend and saviour. The only real false note is Andy Blaikie's frantic and over-insistent clowning as Autolycus; less can be more in acting. Andy Hinds is the director, and a few minor glitches will no doubt be ironed out as the run progresses.

The production is reviewed in today's Irish Independent by Colin Murphy here. He concludes:-

The production is long, at three hours, and not always clear. But Hinds captures something of the ethereal strangeness in it, and that is appropriate on this winter's night.

James McMahon reviews it for RTE here, and concludes that it is :- a terrific success and, while the play has been considered one of Shakespeare's 'problem plays' (both halves seemingly at odds with each other), nothing appeared problematic in this production, with the ensemble completely at ease at all times. One could think of worse ways to wile away a winter's evening.

Added 19.01.09 -
In the Sunday Times yesterday, Declan Burke was less impressed, writing that the first three acts are well executed, Heaney's charged intensity rendering Leontes's derangement plausible. But the shift from impending tragedy to bliss in the final two acts appears to catch out the director, Andy Hinds. The choreography is crude, poor timing ruins too many comic lines, and only Lesa Thurman, as Hermione's friend and the tale's conscience, Paulina, successfully bridges the switch in tone with a compelling performance.

Added 20.01.09-
In the Sunday Business Post review, Sara Keating calls it a clear vision of this neglected drama in (an) intelligent, gripping and hugely entertaining production of the play.

Added 22.01.09-

In today's Irish Times review, Gerry Colgan writes that the fifth annual Shakespeare production by Classic Stage Ireland, directed as always by Andy Hinds, is well up to the standards the company has set for itself. It is a no-frills interpretation in which the characters are sharply etched and the verse dialogue is spoken with precision; a traditional homage to the author. The acting is controlled and persuasive, rising to scale dramatic peaks as required.

Happy Days

This evening, some V formers are going to Beckett's Happy Days at the Abbey Theatre, with Fiona Shaw (above) and Tim Potter. This Deborah Warner-directed production has received great acclaim in its tour. In the Dublin Theatre Festival, it's been discussed in the Irish Times on Saturday by Fintan O'Toole here and Fiona Shaw herself here, and by Bruce Arnold in the Independent here. Deborah Warner discusses her approach in the Guardian here, and there's a summary of British and American reviews here.
Below, Shaw speaks to WNYC Radio of New York about playing the part:

An Ideal Husband : review

Recently our Transition Year all went to the sold-out Abbey Theatre production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband. Here, Thomas Emmet reviews it :

The combination of director Neil Bartlett’s visionary skills and the cast’s raw talent makes this a play well worth seeing. (Read Thomas's full review here).

On Thursday, the whole TY goes to Druid production of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Olympia Theatre, directed by Garry Hynes. More on this in due course.

The Cripple of Inishmaan

Today in the Irish Times, Patrick Lonergan reviews the Druid production of Martin McDonogh's The Cripple of Inishmaan, which we will be seeing with Transition Year in the Dublin Theatre Festival on October 9th :-

This, then, is an intelligent and compassionate production of an important Irish play. The Cripple of Inishmaan remains a well-observed satire on Ireland's obsession with how it's seen by the outside world. But what is much clearer now is this: Martin McDonagh is not just a brilliant storyteller, but a brilliant analyst of the importance of storytelling.

Full review here.

[added 10.10.08 : Lyn Gardner gives the production four stars in her review in today's Guardian]

An Ideal Husband

Tonight all our Transition Year go to their first theatre visit of this year's TY course, the successful Abbey Theatre production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband. We'll post a pupil review later. The next visit will be to the Druid production of Martin McDonagh's The Cripple of Inishmaan at the Olympia Theatre in the Dublin Theatre Festival, on October 9th. For the full text of the play, go here.

The Merchant of Venice

This morning our III form Junior Certificate pupils head off to the Tivoli Theatre to see the Cyclone Productions' version of The Merchant of Venice. There'll be a pupil review here in due course.

The publicity says that this is 'A five person cast perform a commedia dell’arte production set in 16th century Venice. This is Shakespeare as you’ve never seen him, with a slapstick, bawdy style brimming with zany comic energy.'

Macbeth at the Empty Space : Review

On Monday night we went to see Selina Cartmell's inventive and fast-paced production of Macbeth at the Empty Space (she previously directed an acclaimed production for Siren of Titus Andronicus in 2005). Now Rebecca Feeney-Barry of our V form reviews it :

On the 10^th of March, 5th form went to the Empty Space Theatre to see Shakespeare’s Macbeth. I thoroughly enjoyed this production. Cartmell’s interpretation of this great tragedy allowed us to see the journey undertaken by the main character as his actions lead him into hell and madness.

The venue chosen is perfectly suited to the context of the play. The director says that she thought of doing Macbeth when she saw the venue and one can understand why. The earth floors and stone walls in a subterranean space all indicate the trapped atmosphere of the play. This feeling is enhanced by the fact that there is no interval. Also, we are directly involved in the action; the seating is not much higher than the stage and, in order to get to the seats, you must walk across the acting space. This lends an immediacy and an intimacy to the action and to the tragedy of the play.

The title role is played by Rory Keenan, who enacts this difficult role flawlessly. His descent into madness is utterly believable as are all his decisions. He even succeeds in injecting humour where it would seem impossible. His switches between dancing and fraught distress in the banquet scene had the whole audience torn between fear and laughter. The other characters were also acted convincingly. The multiple roles of Olwen Fouere merit a particular mention. She is terrifying as a constant presence in the form of the witches, a murderer and a servant in Macbeth’s castle. She indicates the role of the supernatural in the play as she is always around Macbeth. The forces of good, Malcolm and Macduff, are ably played and fit their characters completely. Lady Macbeth also holds her role of seemingly evil, cruel wife perfectly. In her descent into guilt-fuelled madness, Barbara Brennan’s non-exaggerated acting works perfectly. We feel true pity for her.

The set and costumes were very well done, as the play was set in a modern war. The special effects used made more than one member of the audience jump or cover their eyes. One particularly memorable moment was the interpretation of ‘savagely murdered’ to mean killed with a chainsaw. This is an example of the inventiveness of the production. These effects as well as the venue and the fine acting made this an extremely memorable production of a great tragedy.

John Kelly and his panel (Medb Ruane, Declan Hughes and Peter Murphy) on RTE's 'The View' also reviewed the production on Tuesday night, and you can see the clip on this here for the next few days. They referred to it as a 'brilliant piece of work' with 'wonderful staging', which was 'absolutely gripping'.