Here are a handful of theatre related things that I am looking forward to this year.

1. Blue Raincoat’s production of Rhinoceros at the Town Hall Theatre, February 27 – 29
   My MA class did a two-day workshop in corporeal mime with Blue Raincoat last November. I hadn’t heard of the company before that and I had no idea what corporeal mime was. It was an interesting couple of days and based on my basic knowledge Blue Raincoat’s style, I’m very interested to see what they’re like on stage.
2. Fishamble’s Tiny Play’s for Ireland at Project, March 15 – 31
   Last year Fishamble held a competition looking for three minute plays that said something about Ireland today. They got over 1,700 entries (including one from me)! The winners haven’t been announced yet but the plays that are selected will be performed alongside tiny plays from established writers. I think it will be an interesting evening of snapshots and the audience will walk out of the theatre with their heads full of stories!
3. Alice in Funderland at the Abbey, 30 March – 12 May
   At this stage, it probably goes without saying that I’m looking forward to this production but I thought I’d say it anyway! The show stays true to the absurd surrealism of Lewis Carroll’s original and I’m delighted that it will on at the Abbey who have the ability to bring the crazy, inventive ideas in the script to full fruition. You don’t need a huge budget to make great theatre, but sometimes it’s nice to have it! This is going to be a great show.
4. Willie White’s first Dublin Theatre Festival, September 27 – October 14
   Willie White was the Artistic Director of Project Arts Centre for nine years before he became the new Festival Director earlier this year. As you can probably tell from this blog, that Project is very favourite theatre in Dublin. There’s always at least one thing in their programme that I’m dying to see. It’s also more than just a venue as they offered great support to new artists over the last few years with the Project Catalysts and Project Brand New.
5. The House directed by Annabelle Comyn at the Abbey, 7 June – 14 July
   Annabelle Comyn directed last year’s production of Pygmalion at the Abbey that I loved and I’ve recently discovered Tom Murphy’s plays so I’m interested in seeing this show. Murphy was the first playwright on our list of Irish Playwrights since the 60s and that was my first proper introduction to his work. Before that I’d seen The Last Days of the Reluctant Tyrant but I didn’t really like it. I read The Famine for class (which will be performed as part of Druid’s Murphy cycle later this year) and found it a dark and brutal play. A lot of his work seems to be a bit grim. I also saw the DramSoc’s production of The Morning After Optimism last year, which was a very strange but enjoyable play. Slowly but surely, Tom Murphy is winning me round and I’m looking forward to seeing more of his work.