Reviews Archives - The Phoenix Magazine

DEATH AND NIGHTINGALES – RTÉ1/BBC1

December 13, 2018
THIS IS the first television adaptation of Eugene McCabe’s critically acclaimed 1992 novel about... Read more »

GAME CHANGER – CORA STAUNTON/MARY WHITE

December 13, 2018
IT HAS been a bumper year for sports autobiographies, with Andy Lee’s Fighter and... Read more »

THE BELLY OF THE WHALE

December 13, 2018
THERE ARE several indicators that can alert the unwary to ‘troubled’ films in advance... Read more »

MILKMAN – ANNA BURNS (FABER & FABER)

November 1, 2018
THIS YEAR’S Man Booker winner (the first from Northern Ireland), Anna Burns, has published... Read more »

RICHARD III – ABBEY THEATRE

November 1, 2018
GARRY HYNES must have realised that producing another Shakespearean history play demanded another angle.... Read more »

FINDING JOY – RTÉ 1

November 1, 2018
AMY HUBERMAN turns her hand to ‘comedy’ in this six-part series set in an... Read more »

THE TRICK TO TIME – KIT DE WAAL (VIKING)

August 23, 2018
THIS SECOND novel by Kit de Waal follows her bestselling 2016 debut, My Name... Read more »

THE STAND WITH EAMON DUNPHY

June 13, 2018
WHILE RADIO struggles to hold its place in today’s interconnected world, Ireland’s podcast space... Read more »

THE BREAD WINNER – DIRECTED BY NORA TWOMEY

June 13, 2018
ANIMATION production is the great, but relatively unsung success of the otherwise opaque film... Read more »

SKIN DEEP – LIZ NUGENT (PENGUIN IRELAND)

June 13, 2018
“I WONDERED when rigor mortis would set in, or if it already had.” So... Read more »

CITIZEN LANE – DIRECTED BY THADDEUS O’SULLIVAN

May 31, 2018
WATCHING VETERAN director Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s Citizen Lane, some Irish cinema buffs may be assailed... Read more »

WEST CORK – SAM BUNGEY AND JENNIFER FORDE

May 31, 2018
SCHULL AND its environs seem an unlikely setting for the latest true crime sensation,... Read more »

CONNECT – JULIAN GOUGH (PICADOR)

May 31, 2018
TIPPERARY AUTHOR Julian Gough (now Berlin-based) has already produced three comic novels and a... Read more »

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 »

ASSASSINS – GATE THEATRE

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

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 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 »

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 »

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 »

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