Reviews Archives - The Phoenix Magazine

ON RAFTERY’S HILL – ABBEY THEATRE

May 17, 2018
AT LAST, here’s Marina Carr. As Irish theatres obsess over gender imbalance in the... Read more »

HEARTLAND – PATRICK McCABE (NEW ISLAND)

May 17, 2018
SINCE THE success of The Butcher Boy in 1992, Patrick McCabe has pioneered a... Read more »

THE GREAT HOUSE REVIVAL – RTÉ 1

May 17, 2018
IRELAND’S enduring love affair with home ownership is unlikely to end anytime soon –... Read more »

THE DELINQUENT SEASON – DIRECTED BY MARK O’ROWE

May 3, 2018
ON THE face of it there’s not a lot wrong with The Delinquent Season,... Read more »

ASSASSINS – GATE THEATRE

May 3, 2018
“EVERY NOW and then the country goes a little wrong,” says one of the... Read more »

SILENCE UNDER A STONE – NORMA MacMASTER (DOUBLEDAY IRELAND)

May 3, 2018
SET MOSTLY in the early 20th century in a remote and introspective Co Cavan,... Read more »

MICHAEL INSIDE – DIRECTED BY FRANK BERRY

April 19, 2018
PUT MARK Hamill on a familiar rock in the Atlantic, add a few CGI... Read more »

FROM A LOW AND QUIET SEA – DONAL RYAN (DOUBLEDAY)

April 19, 2018
DONAL RYAN’S novels have focused to date on damaged and distracted characters experiencing lives... Read more »

ALISON SPITTLE’S CULCHIE CLUB – RTÉ2

April 19, 2018
ALISON SPITTLE’S one-off documentary tried to discover the meaning of being a modern-day culchie.... Read more »

ALMOST LOVE – LOUISE O’NEILL (RIVERRUN)

April 5, 2018
FOLLOWING THE success of her two Young Adult novels, Only Ever Yours and the... Read more »

BOOM? – GAIETY THEATRE

April 5, 2018
THE CELTIC Tiger should still give Irish playwrights plenty to write about. The depths... Read more »

COUNTDOWN TO CALVARY – RTÉ One

April 5, 2018
ON EASTER Sunday, RTÉ broadcast an impressive documentary focusing on the final six days... Read more »

THE UNMANAGEABLE SISTERS – ABBEY THEATRE

March 22, 2018
WITH INTENSE public pressure to ensure that women are sufficiently represented on stage, what... Read more »

THE LODGERS – DIRECTED BY BRIAN O’MALLEY

March 22, 2018
CLEARLY, going to the cinema to see an Irish film is often a risk.... Read more »

THE HOARDER – JESS KIDD (CANONGATE)

March 22, 2018
THE LONDON-based Irish author Jess Kidd published her well-received first novel, Himself, in 2016.... Read more »

LOOK BACK IN ANGER – GATE THEATRE

March 8, 2018
THEATRE-GOERS like to reaffirm their own highbrow taste. Regardless of what’s happening on stage,... Read more »

RESTLESS SOULS – DAN SHEEHAN (WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON)

March 8, 2018
SET IN the 1990s, this ambitious debut novel focuses on the close friendship between... Read more »

SOFT BORDER PATROL – BBC One

March 8, 2018
THE SECRET of comedy, they say, is timing and if that were the only... Read more »

THE APPROACH – PROJECT ARTS CENTRE

February 22, 2018
AT THE turn of the millennium, Mark O’Rowe’s ultra-violent plays exploded like a fat... Read more »

THE YOUNG OFFENDERS – RTE 2

February 22, 2018
BASED ON writer-director Peter Foott’s underwhelming but uber-popular 2016 movie of the same name,... Read more »

IN WHITE INK – ELSKE RAHILL (APOLLO LILLIPUT)

February 22, 2018
THIS COLLECTION of 11 short stories follows Elske Rahill’s 2013 debut novel Between Dog... Read more »

SIVE – GAIETY THEATRE

February 8, 2018
AMONG theatre companies, even the most sure-footed occasionally misstep. Druid is no exception. The... Read more »

THE BLINDBOY PODCAST – BLINDBOY BOATCLUB

February 8, 2018
LISTENING TO The Blindboy Podcast is akin to stepping on a bus with no... Read more »

THE EARLIE KING & THE KID IN YELLOW – DANNY DENTON (GRANTA)

February 8, 2018
LITERARY dystopias have become commonplace in recent times. But what distinguishes this ambitious debut... Read more »

SPRING SEASON SCHEDULE – TV3

January 25, 2018
DAMP SQUIB would be a polite description for the launch earlier this month of... Read more »

BLOOD TIDE – CLAIRE McGOWAN (HEADLINE)

January 25, 2018
THIS IS the fifth book in Claire McGowan’s “Ulster noir” series which sees Northern... Read more »

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI – DIRECTED BY MARTIN McDONAGH

January 25, 2018
MARTIN McDONAGH’S Three Billboards… arrives in Ireland garlanded with four Golden Globes (best drama,... Read more »

MRS OSMOND -JOHN BANVILLE (VIKING)

January 11, 2018
IN HIS latest novel, John Banville picks up where Henry James left off at... Read more »

GETAWAYS – RTÉ 1

January 11, 2018
IT BEING January, holiday shows are a TV staple along with the get-fit programmes.... Read more »

HERE AND GONE – HAYLEN BECK (HARVILL SECKER)

January 11, 2018
HAYLEN BECK is the pen name of Northern Irish crime writer Stuart Neville, who... Read more »

OH MY GOD WHAT A COMPLETE AISLING – SARAH BREEN / EMER MCLYSAGHT

December 14, 2017
THE NOVEL Oh My God What A Complete Aisling began life as a Facebook... Read more »

MY ASTONISHING SELF – (RTÉ 1)

December 14, 2017
IN recent years, a growing trend is evident towards arts documentaries presented by celebrities... Read more »

THE RED SHOES – GATE THEATRE

December 14, 2017
AS A new era takes hold at the Gate under Selina Cartmell, one thing... Read more »

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN – ABBEY THEATRE

November 30, 2017
VAMPIRES SMELL funny. Or at least they do according to Swedish writer John Ajvide... Read more »

he: A NOVEL – JOHN CONNOLLY (HODDER & STOUGHTON)

November 30, 2017
THE “he” of John Connolly’s title is Arthur Stanley Jefferson, born in Lancashire and... Read more »

FUNNY BUSINESS – ALAN SHATTER (POOLBEG)

November 30, 2017
IT’S EASY to mock Alan Shatter and it’s very hard to like him. This... Read more »

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