Latest news with #RidersToTheSea
The Guardian
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Riders to the Sea / Macbeth review – intense double bill linked by elemental forces of nature
Marking 50 years of exceptional theatre-making, Druid Theatre Company presents a double bill showcasing the artistry of this tight-knit ensemble and the excavatory lens of its artistic director, Garry Hynes. With a wealth of past productions to choose from, Hynes has paired JM Synge's stark one-act tragedy, Riders to the Sea, with Macbeth. While Synge's distilled miniature is almost eclipsed by what follows, the plays are linked by a focus on the elemental forces of nature and the shadow of death, with small, telling moments of visual continuity between them. In Synge's play, a grieving mother (Marie Mullen) has a premonition of the death at sea of her last surviving son (Marty Rea). The keening women and black-cloaked villagers' laments are later echoed in the guttural cries of the weird sisters, hooded figures from folk horror, who accost Macbeth (Rea) and Banquo (Rory Nolan) on the blasted heath. In both plays the veneer of Christianity is flimsy, while older, primal beliefs and fears hold sway. A statue of the crucified Christ is suspended on the back wall, not high enough to be safe from the predations of Rea's electrifying Macbeth, while a banquet becomes a twisted Last Supper where glasses are filled with blood-tainted water rather than wine. Mullen's compelling Lady Macbeth is transformed from her husband's goading, bullying accomplice into a wreck, terrified of his rampaging. While the age-gap between the two actors adds another layer to this relationship, at times closer to mother and son like Volumnia and Coriolanus, it is also completely credible. With the superb cast of 11 making darting entrances through hidden flaps in the walls of designer Francis O'Connor's stripped wooden set, the pace is unflagging, the menace unrelenting. For the audience seated on three sides, intensity is heightened by proximity to the performers. 'O full of scorpions is my mind,' Rea spits out, as Macbeth's mind and spirit curdle into something monstrous: bloodthirsty and unhinged. This is a medieval world, with shadowy forces and omens, candlelight and mud-covered floors, yet its portrayal of tyranny and the speed with which all civility falls away feels anything but remote. At Galway international arts festival until 26 July; then at Gaiety theatre, Dublin, for Dublin theatre festival, 25 September to 5 October
Irish Independent
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Dolmen Theatre present In the Shadow of the Glen and Riders to the Sea by J M Synge
In The Shadow Of The Glen was the first of J.M Synge's plays to be performed on stage in1903. A tramp, played by Nevan Finegan, is seeking shelter in the Burkes' isolated farmhouse in Co Wicklow when he comes across Nora played by Michelle Matthews, tending to the corpse of Dan, her husband, played by Jack Montgomery, . When a young sheep farmer, played by David McArdle calls to the house to pay his respects it becomes apparent that all is not what it seems. Riders To The Sea is set in the Aran Islands and is inspired by a story that Synge heard when he visited the islands on the recommendation of W B Yeats. It tells the story of Maurya ,played by Gabrielle Tuomey, who has lost her husband and five sons to the sea. Her daughters, Nora and Cathleen, played by Sarah Cosgrove and Aoife Duffy receive word from the priest that a body, which may be that their brother Michael, has washed up on shore in County Donegal. Their only remaining brother Bartley, played by Max Valentine, is due to travel to the main land to sell horses. But he and Maurya part on ill words before his voyage and she predicts that by nightfall she will have no living sons left. Riders To The Sea was first performed in 1904 and is considered to be one of the greatest one act plays of the 20th century. J.M Synge was a leading figure in the Irish Literary renaissance, He wrote only seven plays before his untimely death at the age of 37. He created a new, musical dramatic idiom, spoken in English but vitalized by Irish syntax know as Hiberno-English. His legacy to Irish drama was immense and his influence is sill resonant to this day. He has inspired the likes O'Casey, Friel, Behan, Kean and more recently playwright and filmmaker Martin McDonagh. Tickets €16 and concessions €14 plus €1.50 booking fee per ticket are available from the box office at An Tain Arts Centre, by phone 042 9332332 or online at Friday night's performance is already sold out and only a limited number of tickets are available for Thursday night.
