Dublin Theatre Festival 2026: Lourdes! The Musical

Chris O'Rourke

9 minutes ago

3 min read

Riain Cash, Molly Lynch, Danielle James in Lourdes! The Musical by Xnthony Ltd. Image, Patricio Cassinoni

****

Yes, Lourdes! The Musical is loud, brash and hilariously funny. Yes, it's full of DIY inventiveness. Yes, it concerns itself with an egotistical narcissist, commonly known as an actor, reduced to their second-best life. But if you're expecting something akin to the hugely entertaining Oliver Cromwell Is Really Very Sorry, best manage your expectations. Instead of history as cabaret kitsch, Lourdes! The Musical interrogates a plethora of weighted themes centred around human suffering in the face of death. Signalling a transition for its creator, Xnthony, from cabaret act to full-fledged musical theatre creator. Lourdes! The Musical delivering a triumph of imagination over budget. A musical in which tears make laughter resonate, even as a dampened tone causes undue heaviness.

Getting off to a weak start, hurried exposition casts a dark shadow as, barely two minutes in, Riain Cash's insufferable Matthew is diagnosed as HIV-positive, loses his Hollywood big break and is forced to return to his gloating neighbours in Countryland, spelt minus the 'o'. A questionable vision from the Virgin Mary leading to Matthew being drafted into the local drama group for their latest production, Bernadette: The Musical, to be performed during their pilgrimage to Lourdes. Issues abounding as the brilliant Iestyn Arwel as a trendy priest straight from Father Ted, and a divine Molly Lynch as musical Cinderella, Martha, marshal their threadbare forces. All journeying to France in the hope of a day cure at the waters and a night to remember.

Riain Cash, Molly Lynch, Danielle James (top), Nichola MacEvilly, Iestyn Arwel in Lourdes! The Musical by Xnthony Ltd.

Image, Patricio Cassinoni

What follows is less The Song of Bernadette so much as Songs In The Key of Life. A terrific Danielle James as trans daughter Tracey, whose heartfelt lament delivers an emotional sucker punch, plays friend and foil to Matthew's self-serving delusions. The doubly brilliant, doubly maternal Nichola MacEvilly a veritable joy playing polar opposites as Matthew's cartoon caricature of a devoted Irish Mammy and Tracey's cancer-ridden, world-hardened mother Danica. All asking the same questions: what's the point of Lourdes if the cures don't come? How do you go on when you can't go on yet the only way out is through?

Set in 2008, Lourdes! The Musical is retro enough to secularly sell its religious apparitions. If book and lyrics by Xnthony, with music and lyrics by Matthew Floyd Jones present a ready-made tale (rural loser living second-best life finds redemption via quirky friends), there's some gem musical moments. The superb Club Is Church routine juxtaposing the holy water opium of the masses with the ecstasy-fuelled miracle of the dance floor, where bodies of Christ find relief in communal proximity. Yet whilst showing huge maturity, a homogenised quality hangs over music, leaving voices comfortable in the upper, middle or lower register sounding less assured outside their comfort zone. Musicians Guy Richman, Michael Bradley, and Philip Myatt, playing live onstage, add to musical immediacy and a DIY ethos. Embodied in Niall McKeever's cost-cutting, Brechtian set, looking cleverly constructed from odds and ends found in the centre aisle at Aldi. Sarah Meadows whisking up an irreverent, emotional cocktail packing a killer punch via some free-flowing direction.

Molly Lynch (top), Danielle James, Nichola MacEvilly and Riain Cash in Lourdes! The Musical by Xnthony Ltd.

Image, Patricio Cassinoni

In a world of recreational gravitas, Lourdes! The Musical tackles an often taboo subject in a hugely entertaining way. As the brilliant Next To Normal did with bipolar disorder, Lourdes! The Musical journeys through anger, denial, bargaining, depression and acceptance of human despair with genuine, if irreverent dignity. If its weighted opening dampens humour, leaving it working hard to win its audience back, and if it references countless HIV-themed movies, the trade-off is a deeper, richer experience. The clichéd end acknowledging that peculiarly Irish tension of loving a caring God you don't believe in whilst hating them for not existing. All the while keeping your fingers crossed in fear, and hope, that there might be something to it after all. Even as the real miracle comes in a pill, in the family or friend there next to you, in embracing the lows as well as the highs of life. Lourdes! The Musical a celebration best enjoyed in all its unhealed, messy madness. A little like life.