The Arts Review​

Aoise Meaney, Séamus McLean Ross in Disco Pigs,. Image, Marcin Lewandowski *** When it first premiered in 1996, Enda Walsh’s undisputed classic Disco Pigs was informed by the cultural zeitgeist of the time. Today, its dated references remind us of when Ireland began to find cultural confidence through a refusal of what was in favour of what we might become. Walsh’s coming-of-age tale of two darkly twisted seventeen-year-olds discovering desires beyond the friend zone drenched

Niamh O'Sullivan in Carmen. Image, Ros Kavanagh. ***** It feels like déjà vu. A faint foreboding that you've seen this before. You'd be partially right. Irish National Opera's latest version of Bizet’s Carmen (1875) repurposing much of their 2022 version, in which the impressive Paula Murrihy played the eponymous heroine. Director Paul Curran's Fifties-themed fantasy, framed by Gary McCann's distinctive set and costumes, retro-illuminated by Paul Hackenmueller's majestic ligh

Physical Landscape. Image, Ewa Figaszewska *** T. S. Eliot claimed there is more to the poem than the poet knows themselves. Including elements they may not intend to be there. Which might be the case with choreographer John Scott’s Physical Landscape. Irish Modern Dance Theatre’s latest offering falling loosely into three sections. Working backwards, the third is a predominantly collective exercise built on a heft of found movement. The second an intriguing conversation betw