The wealthy and the privileged obsess on their legacy. Not content with winning the lottery of life, they want to win against history; a history that conspires with death, that ‘great leveller’, to render everyone equally forgotten. They do great deeds of charity and philanthropy that somehow always require acknowledgment by award, statue or a …
Last Orders at the Dockside
When I was a kid, one of my favourite school lessons was learning the nouns for various occupations. Sometimes the word was obvious: a person who works in a bank is called a banker. Sometimes the word made less sense to my 8-year old mind and my failure to memorise it would earn me a …
Playboy of the Western World
John Millington Synge's play The Playboy of the Western World famously caused riots when it was first performed in 1907. Since then it has become essential to the Irish theatrical canon and there have been countless impressive revivals. The 2019 Dublin Theatre Festival opened tonight with a new production that attempts to look afresh at …