Lynne Parker

Freefalling: A wild, extraordinary story that you couldn’t make up

Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Georgina Miller’s account of her recent life mixes daredevil adrenaline with humour and a lightness of touch

Thu Oct 10 2024 - 12:35

Peter Hanly was one of Ireland’s most recognisable actors. Then he vanished

More than a decade after his last appearance, the actor has found a way to talk about what happened - and from a startling place

Sat Aug 24 2024 - 05:15

Children of the Sun review: Rough Magic shakes up Gorky with humour, style and sheer chutzpah

Theatre: Purists may grind away a tooth or two, but Hilary Fannin’s adaptation will leave few audience members bored

Fri Apr 19 2024 - 08:31

Hilary Fannin: ‘You’re faced with something so mad – maybe you’re going to die’

Last year the former Irish Times columnist’s work on her new play, for Rough Magic and the Abbey, was interrupted by a double cancer diagnosis

Sat Apr 13 2024 - 05:30

Rough Magic at 40: ‘We started out as left-wing young idealists. That need to react to the world is very strong’

The theatre company, now more than 100 productions into its creative life, still holds firm to the artistic outlook it adopted back in 1984

Sat Feb 03 2024 - 05:15

Kilkenny Arts Festival mixes risk and safe-bets in search of magical chance

From Rough Magic’s Tonic to Mozart’s Requiem, the festival starts August 6th

Tue Jul 06 2021 - 05:00

Kilkenny festival to present mixture of virtual and live events

‘Bringing people back together is really important,’ says director Olga Barry

Tue Jul 21 2020 - 05:00

Looking at a republic falling apart from the inside

Corn Exchange’s new and final play is a grim look at an alternative 1970s Ireland

Sat Feb 22 2020 - 06:00

Irish theatre in 2019: A dramatic year that left the future uncertain

Theatre in Ireland this year was bookended by two crises, a state of play mirrored by the work

Sat Dec 07 2019 - 05:00

Hecuba review: Perspective and psychology brought to an ancient tale

Dublin Theatre Festival: In Marina Carr’s version of Hecuba, the scale of tragedy is made rivetingly intimate

Mon Sept 30 2019 - 12:39

Rough Magic theatre, 35 years on: ‘Dublin in those days was so bohemian’

Company reflects on decades of casting spells and pushing the envelope with its productions

Sat Jul 27 2019 - 05:00

Cleft review: An intriguing look at fear, bravery and trauma

Fergal McElherron explores family histories, and life on the margins in his new play

Wed Jul 24 2019 - 11:54

The week’s best theatre: Two new plays going by their gut

These Stupid Things at Smock Alley Theatre and Cleft at O’Donoghue Theatre are his week’s highlights

Sat Jul 20 2019 - 05:00

Fair City actor lived his life ‘to the full’, funeral Mass told

Actor Karl Shiels, who died on Monday aged 47, played shady Robbie Quinn in the soap

Thu Jul 18 2019 - 20:28

Kilkenny Arts Festival 2019: Rough Magic does Shakespeare, Nathalie Stutzmann does Bach

Festival unveils programme for this year’s festival, which runs from August 8th to 18th

Tue Jun 18 2019 - 12:59

Director’s Choice: Theatre directors pick the soundtracks of their lives

Musicians from RIAM will play these specially selected, deeply personal pieces

Wed Apr 10 2019 - 05:00

After a two-year process, Fishamble selects its 'big, ambitious' Play for Ireland

The Alternative wins Fishamble’s project, which seeks to buck trend for shorter productions

Tue Apr 02 2019 - 05:00

Owen Roe: 'How can you study Beckett and not know anything about Laurel and Hardy?'

The actor will be honoured at this year's Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards

Sat Mar 23 2019 - 05:00

A Midsummer Night’s Dream laced with glee, invention and a shiver of anxiety

Review: Lynne Parker directs an Irish take on Shakespeare at Kilkenny Arts Festival

Mon Aug 13 2018 - 11:00

Shakespeare’s summer sensation: This week’s theatre highlights

Rough Magic’s high-voltage staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream addresses climate change, while Jim Cartwright’s ‘Two’ is more than the sum of its parts

Sat Aug 04 2018 - 05:00

It's a kind of magic: electric midsummer night's dreams in Kilkenny Castle

Rough Magic is recharging itself with a new young company and an electrifying take on Shakespeare

Sat Aug 04 2018 - 05:00

Yes we did: Irish theatre’s gender-equality revolution

Irish theatre came out blazing this week, proving that gender equality is ‘not hard to do, if you want to’

Sat Jul 14 2018 - 06:00

President pays tribute to ‘courageous being’ Tom Murphy

Over 600, including big cross-section from theatre and arts , attend humanist service

Sat May 19 2018 - 18:41

‘Shakespeare is for life, not just for the Leaving Cert’

Highlights of Kilkenny Arts Festival announced for the medieval city

Thu Apr 26 2018 - 01:00

Theatre directors condemn sexual harassment and abuse of power

Directors of Abbey and Gate and Druid among those committed to challenging ‘unacceptable behaviour’

Fri Oct 27 2017 - 19:16

Melt review: A play that goes to the end of the world

There’s no other play quite like Rough Magic’s Melt right now

Mon Oct 02 2017 - 13:20

Which Irish theatre companies have the worst record regarding women?

New research commissioned by Waking The Feminists shows theatre companies with biggest state subsidy have worst gender record

Wed Jun 07 2017 - 10:45

Northern Star review: Northern Star review: A riff on nationalism with profound resonances

Rough Magic’s production of Stewart Parker’s play about the 1798 rebellion enriches the self-consciousness of the dramatic style

Sat Apr 30 2016 - 14:15

Parker on Parker: ‘Stewart’s work has been horrendously ignored’

Productions of Stewart Parker plays have been among the biggest successes of his niece Lynne Parker’s career. For her latest tilt at Northern Star, she decided to ‘Brecht it a bit’

Wed Apr 20 2016 - 06:00

DTF review | The Train: A theatrical manifesto, exuberantly played for laughs

This isn’t the most serious meditation on gender equality, but it’s definitely one of the most charming

Thu Oct 08 2015 - 11:43

The 'contraceptive train’ spawns a musical

The women who went to Belfast in May 1971 to bring back illegal ‘French Letters’ are looking forward to seeing themselves on stage

Mon Sept 21 2015 - 06:00

Famished Castle: ‘What happens lost love? Where does it go?’

Hilary Fannin’s play takes in a decade of loves won and lost and our economic boom and bust

Mon May 18 2015 - 01:00

Review: Famished Castle

Are all the characters in Hilary Fannin’s new play toxically self-involved or has our national plummet from prosperity left everybody isolated?

Thu May 14 2015 - 15:13

Hilary Fannin: I was top of the class in drinking down the nuns’ wild tales

Man, I loved a bit of fervour. Hand on heart, I’d like to acknowledge the energy that the nuns put into the telling of the great, mad story of their exotic world

Fri May 08 2015 - 09:00