The Arts Review​

Chris O'Dowd, Peter Corboy and Brian Gleeson in The Brightening Air. Image Patricio Cassinoni **** Tolstoy famously claimed, “all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. Clearly Tolstoy hadn't watched many 1980s, family sitcoms. Before that The Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, even The Addams Family were all lovely in a similar lovely way. Till The Simpsons, Married With Children, later followed by Malcolm in the Middle arrived portraying u

Patrick Ryan and Clelia Murphy in Two. Image uncredited ***** Despite vicious rumours to the contrary, no critic worth their salt relishes writing a bad review. Most critics hope every production they attend will succeed on every front. Yet I have to confess to being somewhat relieved I have written negative reviews (moi!). Which serve as an incontrovertible reminder that I do possess objectivity and am not afraid to use it. An objectivity that could be questioned given a run

Aaron Monaghan and Marty Rae in The Shaughraun. Image, Ros Kavanagh ***** There’s stories we tell ourselves and there’s the stories we tell ourselves about the stories we tell ourselves. Take Dion Boucicault’s penultimate play The Shaughraun. Boucicault’s comic melodrama of a wrongly convicted Fenian who escapes an Australian prison and returns to his native Sligo (Slee-go for those afflicted with RP). With the help of roguish, whiskey swilling poacher, Conn The Shaughraun, a