The week in theatre: Faith Healer; Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon – review
Faith Healer review – Brian Friel’s classic questions everything we believe
April 2023
The week in theatre: Dancing at Lughnasa; Private Lives – review
Dancing at Lughnasa review – an exquisite staging of Brian Friel’s evocative drama
January 2023
Vittorio Angelone: Translations review – an eye-catching standup debut
The Irish-Italian comedian, nominated for best newcomer at the Edinburgh fringe, delivers his show with a light touch and ample self-irony
May 2022
Translations review – Brian Friel’s tale of two cultures has universal impact
Caitríona McLaughlin’s taut new production of Friel’s colonisation drama is a timeless study of change and identity
December 2021
Faith Healer review – Aidan Gillen is mercurial and mysterious in Brian Friel’s classic
Gillen, Niamh Cusack and Nigel Lindsay deliver haunting monologues in director Joe Dowling’s affectingly sombre production
August 2021
Top 10s
Top 10 books about family life
From parents who meddle in their children’s relationships to ex-wives who loom over second marriages, families in fiction can be just as complicated as they are in real life
September 2020
Faith Healer review – this virtual Friel is the stuff of miracles
Michael Sheen, Indira Varma and David Threlfall are magnificent in Matthew Warchus’s enthralling livestreamed production of Brian Friel’s 1979 play
Michael Sheen, Indira Varma and David Threlfall are a superb trinity for Brian Friel’s powerful monologues
Lockdown culture
Michael Sheen returns to stage in live-streamed Faith Healer
Brian Friel drama promises ‘emotional thwack’, with star joining David Threlfall and Indira Varma at the Old Vic
March 2020
Lockdown culture
All the world's a page: the joy of scripts during theatre's shutdown
Afterplay review – Brian Friel's Chekhovian parlour game
October 2019
Hedda Gabler review – Ibsen's stormy heroine checks her privilege
Complex women are imprisoned in a world of male buffoons in this rich and remarkably modern staging of the seminal drama – but only Hedda can escape
August 2019
Lughnasa FrielFest review – art over troubled borders
The annual celebration of the work of Brian Friel
August 2018
The week in theatre: Switzerland; The Price; Aristocrats – review
Lughnasa FrielFest review – from Ithaca to Donegal
Arts Over Borders: Brian Friel festival puts Brexit centre-stage
Aristocrats review – Brian Friel's striking portrait of a family in decline
June 2018
The week in theatre: Translations; Consent; The Biograph Girl
Not understanding speaks volumes in Ian Rickson’s tremendous new production of Brian Friel’s 1980 classic. And Nina Raine’s unflinching Consent transfers to the West End
