2025 on stage: 21 plays, operas and dance works to see over the next 12 months
From King Lear at the Gate to Dr Strangelove starring Steve Coogan, the coming year’s stage line-up includes jukebox musicals, period romcom and a play that probes the Irish Hospitals’ Sweepstake
The best theatre of 2024: Blessed are the risk-takers
Gambling on longer runs of unfamiliar work paid off in a gratifying number of cases. But Irish theatre still isn’t as inclusive as it should be
A Streetcar Named Desire review: Hot and bothered in New Orleans
Theatre: Cathal Cleary’s lucid production features a pleasingly young cast, including an impressively fluid Eavan Gaffney as Blanche DuBois
It’s Always Your Bleedin’ Own: A swooning comedy for Dublin after the riots
Theatre: Ericka Roe is note perfect in Thommas Kane Byrne’s fabulous version of Dublin’s inner city
Everything Falls review: Family care presented as a wearying, compassionate dance
Theatre: Shaun Dunne and Brokentalkers’ collaboration portrays the challenges of looking after a partner with a long-term illness
Mother Courage and Her Children review: A darkly comic road trip through a Europe at war
Theatre: Sandra O Malley delivers a career-defining performance in Blue Raincoat’s meticulous production of Bertolt Brecht’s 1941 play
The Tragedy of Richard III: Editing Shakespeare’s crude portrait of the disabled royal
Belfast International Arts Festival 2024: Oisín Kearney and Michael Patrick’s inventive staging exposes some of the play’s bile
Safe House: Enda Walsh’s new work is an oppressively desolate song cycle
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Kate Gilmore is impressive as a vulnerable young woman, but parts of the staging overwhelm her character
Darkmatter: A freaky, oozy horror dance
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: The Dutch choreographer Cherish Menzo’s eventful piece has a frightening otherworldliness
Amelia: A touching vision of where we – and theatre – will end up in the climate crisis
Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Dee Roycroft’s ingenious play could be considered dystopian, but the pessimism doesn’t get everyone down
Autumn culture preview 2024: The biggest films, TV shows, books, music, theatre and exhibitions to catch
From Paul Mescal in Gladiator II and Cate Blanchett in Disclaimer to Nick Cave at 3Arena and Brian Maguire at the Hugh Lane
First Trimester: On-stage sperm-donor interviews elicit touching discussions about parenting
Dublin Fringe Festival 2024: Krishna Istha’s radical performance is part of a trans couple’s real-life journey to start a family
The House: Druid’s bold Tom Murphy revival dives into an obsessed mind
Theatre: Garry Hynes stages daring production of drama set during 1950s summer fortnight when locals return from living abroad
Trouble Denim: An anarchic comedian adjusts to chaotic life on the road
Dublin Fringe Festival 2024: Shane Daniel Byrne’s swirling new stand-up show riffs on the milestones of his first year as a full-time comic
Julius Caesar Variety Show: An anxious comedy about a theatre industry refusing to evolve
Dublin Fringe Festival 2024: In aiming to unsettle, Joy Nesbitt’s satire relies on less plausible devices