2023-03-23 21:56
When your mother’s been covering for you all your life, overlooking what’s going on under her nose in her own house, and even stealing to help you kickstart the family’s ol… Read More
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Alan In Belfast Blog
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An irregular set of posts, weaving an intricate pattern around culture and technology. Alan ... in Belfast, Northern Ireland
2023-03-22 23:03
Good Omens, Coraline and a couple of Doctor Who episodes are my only Neil Gaiman reference points, so I didn’t come to last night’s performance of The Ocean at the End of the Lan… Read More
2023-03-20 23:14
It’s 2005 and schoolgirl Maura is obsessed with Martine McCutcheon. In a welcome revival of this one-woman show by Commedia of Errors, Calla Hughes steps into the role of Maura and pir… Read More
2023-03-20 18:36
The opening scenes of Rye Lane establish a beautiful feeling of anticipation about a somewhat random film: an awkwardly honest encounter in a grim toilet, an art exhibition complete with a r… Read More
2023-03-18 22:19
Peter Corry is marking 30 years of treading the boards professionally, and to celebrate his production company have staged a show based on popular musical theatre. There’s No Business… Read More
2023-03-15 19:13
The most reluctant student teacher you’ll ever encounter is dispatched to serve the local children of the most remote school in Bhutan, perhaps the most remote in the world. It’s… Read More
2023-03-14 12:59
Autobiographical shows litter festival and fringe programmes. They are vehicles that suit comics and solo performers, and some work better than others. But Replay Theatre Company’s Mir… Read More
2023-03-09 20:57
Every evening Mike (played by Stephen Beggs) comes home from work, his wife Alison (Christine Clark) finds that he’s more and more distant. Out of nowhere he accuses her of now liking… Read More
2023-03-08 17:43
Taking on a production of the scale of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is an ambitious project, whether it’s by a professional touring company or an amateur company. This week’s run… Read More
2023-03-06 00:58
Replay Theatre Company takes kids’ theatre incredible seriously. The clue is in their website’s statements of vision and purpose: “enriching lives through world class theat… Read More
2023-03-01 21:09
Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp’s feature extends a popular trilogy of shorts to flesh out the backstory of the googly-eyed sneaker-wearing anthropomorphic shell called Marcel. I&r&hell…Read More
2023-02-26 21:21
One of the weekend’s Look North! The North Belfast Festival events assembled a panel of authors to discuss the overlooked Belfast writer Mary Beckett.Lucy Caldwell was joined by Jan Ca… Read More
2023-02-25 00:25
Furious rain was pouring out of the heavens and running down the street in torrents just outside the building’s door. Inside, the converted clothes shop was now home to a range of youn… Read More
2023-02-24 08:34
Hirokazu Koreeda’s Broker tells the story of what happens when a young woman who left her baby at a Busan church baby box returns and discovers there’s no record of the child. Sh… Read More
2023-02-21 16:00
Three generations of the Rana family live under the one roof in Lahore. The grandfather rules the roost from his wheelchair. His younger son Haider (Ali Junejo) is out of work and helps out… Read More
2023-02-21 00:11
The Commitments as a show is at its strongest when the band is in its infancy and are rehearsing (believably rough and anarchic) and then playing their first gig in the community hall slot v… Read More
2023-02-11 14:06
When a group of men who have been accused of abusing women in their isolated Mennonite community in Mexico are arrested, the remaining menfolk ride off to post bail. The women left behind &n&hell…Read More
2023-02-10 23:58
It’s the summer of 2022 and Verona’s rival fashion houses are at war. A physical fight at the start of each act demonstrates that the verbal venom can quickly turn to violence wh… Read More
2023-02-05 20:56
A Farther Shore retells the well-known story of Peter the Apostle, a fisherman by family trade who becomes a disciple of the “hill country carpenter” turned Jewish preacher Jesus… Read More
2023-01-31 18:25
Steven Spielberg knows how to tell a story. You can sit back in your cinema seat, relax, and enjoy The Fabelmans. It’s a tale about endings, about manipulation, and about the tug of wa… Read More
2023-01-30 00:02
Late last week, the NI Children’s Commissioner released the results of a formal investigation into the life of a child in the car of the state. As the effect of interventions and misse… Read More
2023-01-23 00:16
Babylon is a largely episodic film that charts the development of the US movie industry over 25 years from silent films into talkies. It follows the undulating and mostly self-destructing ca… Read More
2023-01-21 16:57
After a lot of close shaves, there comes a time in a cat’s life when living up to the legend is no longer the main priority. Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) briefly consider… Read More
2023-01-18 14:28
A trinity of glitter balls hang over the audience as I Will Survive plays, the theatre doors close, and the house lights dim at the start of Sister Act. It’s Christmas Eve, but the Sis… Read More
2023-01-16 23:33
For Hilary (played by Olivia Colman), the Empire cinema in the seaside town of Margate is a place of respite and distraction. A place to return to after treatment for sunnier days. A workpla… Read More
2023-01-15 16:45
Tár depicts a critically acclaimed musician, composer and conductor who is at the pinnacle of her career, about to complete her orchestra’s cycle of Mahler symphony recordings… Read More
2022-12-07 00:23
The opening minutes of this year’s pantomime see the fairy godmother (May McFettridge) make a daring entrance onto the Grand Opera House stage, establish the fine singing voices of Pri… Read More
2022-12-06 22:34
The Theatre at the Mill’s production of The Shop at the Top of the Town takes audiences back to the Belfast of the early 1970s. The security barriers have created a ring of steel aroun… Read More
2022-12-03 00:11
Welcome to Cinderella, Cahoots-style. Everything is roughly as you’d expect. Or is it?A once-rich woman and her two belligerent daughters come to live with a hard-working widower clock… Read More
2022-11-30 23:20
Audience participation from the very beginning? Tick. Cheesy Tik Tok songs and dancing? Getting the baddie’s name deliberately wrong? Throwing in a few phrases to go over the heads of… Read More
2022-11-28 12:40
The style and works of the late-nineteenth century Dutch impressionist painter Vincent can Gogh are familiar. The Starry Night and Sunflowers are amongst the most searched paintings on Googl… Read More
2022-11-27 23:30
With an initial townscape that wouldn’t look out of place for a production of Mamma Mia, it’s Just Another Day in the Sun in Blomsterby according to the lyrics of The Snow Queen… Read More
2022-11-21 14:28
Twelve guests travel by boat to Hawthorne* Island to experience an intense evening of fine dining. The kitchen staff and chef Julian Slowik live on the island in relative isolation, a cult-l… Read More
2022-11-19 22:03
Eamon is trapped. His mind is replays the events of a night some years ago when he gave a lift to a couple of friends. Even though he was mad about cars – you had to be living in an ar… Read More
2022-11-11 23:12
The premise of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is that the meteor metal vibranium has been found on the ocean floor far away from Wakanda. When the exploration mission is attacked, Wakanda is… Read More
2022-11-09 14:00
The ABBA jukebox musical Mamma Mia is 23 years old. You’ll probably already know the story from the film adaptation, and you’ll be familiar with the twenty of more ABBA songs tha… Read More
2022-11-08 18:01
Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman is the most gruesome play I’ve attended. Within it were a series of grisly fairy tales. The retelling of the origin story of ‘The Pillowman… Read More
2022-11-05 13:54
Theatre can kickstart conversation. It can contribute to conversation. Or, as in the case of Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools, it can be entirely based around conversation, between the artists on… Read More
2022-11-04 01:11
After Melissa is a tragedy told through the memories of a Donegall man, an Egyptian woman who married into high society, and a younger woman who brings pleasure to many but is searching for… Read More
2022-11-01 15:35
Lyra McKee was a ‘ceasefire baby’ born with a double shot of curiosity and empathy. Her mind always seemed to be racing ahead, ploughing through possibilities for stories, making… Read More
2022-10-29 20:54
Big Man is Paul McVeigh’s first play for 20 years, and marks his return to theatre after a career that morphed into comedy before shifting towards short fiction and the publication of… Read More
2022-10-26 14:03
Oona Doherty has a history of producing pieces of dance theatre that are full on, high energy, provocative, and body-stretching. Navy Blue builds on this legacy with an exciting new producti… Read More
2022-10-23 12:04
Another Lover’s Discourse is a truly multi-media solo performance by Palestinian artist Riham Isaac, combining crafts, film, song, dance, interviews, fashion, objects, live camera work… Read More
2022-10-21 22:18
I can rarely claim to fully understand what’s being said, or feel secure that I know what I’ve heard, at contemporary dance performances. The grammar is often illusive. The meani… Read More
2022-10-20 11:54
The success of Parasite (both in colour, and then the even better black and white print) seemed to push the door open to screening a wider range of South Korean cinema in the UK, rather than… Read More
2022-10-18 23:11
For 231 years, The Magic Flute’s Queen of the Night has been going around in circles, with similar casting choices, similar direction. Stuck in a rut, the Queen is having no more of it… Read More
2022-10-17 14:12
Once upon a time, long before a retail and leisure park was built at City Side, the highwayman Black Hearted Benjamin lived in a house built on the fields. Legend says that the structure bec… Read More
2022-10-16 18:13
You’ll already know the story. The one about Frankenstein’s monster who was resting after the collapse of his Hollywood career and in was only years later when a 24-year-old conf… Read More
2022-10-15 18:06
Thaw sees a group of six intrepid adventurers join an expedition to repair a piece of advanced machinery that might slow the melting of the glaciers and begin to reverse the climate crisis… Read More
2022-10-14 13:35
Given the political instability in Northern Ireland and the UK, you might well ask when are we not living through ‘extraordinary times’? (I write this as the Tory Chancellor&rsqu&hell…Read More
2022-10-14 12:26
It’s rare to go to the theatre and be confronted with the full package. When the pinpoint lighting and the projection are fully integral to the storytelling, when the wingless stage fl… Read More
2022-10-11 07:50
Spending most of my time tootling between Lisburn and Belfast, I’ve always valued driving a small car that maximises the chance of finding a free parking space. Having driven a Toyota… Read More
2022-10-09 10:45
Groucho Marx and T.S. Eliot walk into a bar … well, a restaurant, and they don’t walk in, they just appear after a flash of light cleverly blinds the audience who have up until… Read More
2022-10-07 23:20
“Vienna, my hole” is how one player reacts to the suspicious looking invitation for the east Belfast football side to play the best of Europe in the spring of 1914. One Saturday… Read More
2022-10-06 23:42
The Indian child on The Mickey House Club wasn’t given the same prominence as the white kids who launched themselves off the Disney TV extravaganza’s springboard into big careers… Read More
2022-10-05 07:10
At one end of the scale of Biblical stories set to music you have Richard Strauss’ Salome, a horrifying retelling of the depraved story of the death of John the Baptist that exposes th… Read More
2022-09-28 13:18
The on-stage musical talent and live performance throughout Beautiful: The Carole King Musical make it stand out from other jukebox musicals. Two hours of live music, brought to life by the… Read More
2022-09-21 10:56
It’s nearly three years since Bill Kenwright’s Saturday Night Fever last toured through Belfast. It’s back on the stage of the Grand Opera House this week. Has much changed… Read More
2022-09-20 17:57
A murmur of recognition spreads across the Ormeau Park audience seated in a big top when one of the cast mentions “the list” (aka the Common Waiting List which is drawn up and so… Read More
2022-09-17 15:23
Belfast International Arts Festival is back from 5 October until 6 November. 60 years on from its inception in 1962, the programme combines the best of home grown international talent with i… Read More
2022-09-16 19:51
Ireland’s answer to Lassie hits the silver screen this weekend. A cute and persistent dog somewhat knowingly grooms Róise (Bríd Ní Neachtain), a widowed grandmothe… Read More
2022-09-15 19:15
See How They Run is inspired by Agatha Christie murder mysteries, in particular The Mousetrap, a whodunit play that’s been running in London’s West End since 1952, only halting f… Read More
2022-09-15 17:41
Both Sides of the Blade is a film about living well with the choices that you and other people make, thinking carefully before revisiting them if unexpected opportunities arise. A pretty mun… Read More
2022-09-15 11:13
The Dundonald Liberation Army harbour a grudge against the good people of Lisburn and the self-proclaimed freedom fighters are seeking independence from the city-siders in their council area… Read More
2022-09-11 21:18
Part of Kate is lost when her husband Joe drops dead. Her friends gather round. A notion of a weekend of pampering in a Fermanagh resort turns into a year-long tour around Ireland’s co… Read More
2022-09-11 15:52
The door to the circular ball room opens and every head turns as a woman wearing a striking scarlet dress walks in. Violetta is a Parisian escort – a ‘courtesan’ in polite… Read More
2022-09-06 20:31
Human physiology has evolved, and the absence of pain and infection in most of the population has led to a rise in bodily experimentation. Abdominal zips, extra ears for show, as well as mor… Read More
2022-09-02 22:53
It’s not really a surprise that I was the only person attending the 19:40 Lisburn Omniplex screening of Blackbird on the night the film went on general release. No one ate noisy food o… Read More
2022-08-29 18:18
A parent worrying about the education and prospects of their child. It’s a universal story. Her Way tells it from the perspective of an independent-minded, self-sufficient woman Marie… Read More
2022-08-29 15:55
Take three people with very definite but different creative methods. Throw them together to make a vanity project film for an aging tycoon. Sit back and enjoy the battle of wits and the ment… Read More
2022-08-29 14:07
After Puckoon, The Border Game is probably my favourite play to tackle the absurdities and complexity of the 310 mile line that splits north from south on this island. (Yes, I’d put it… Read More
2022-08-26 23:39
You need to throw a lot of energy and confidence at a production of The Producers if you want the parody to shine out above the dark source of the comedy. There’s a fine line between s… Read More
2022-08-24 13:28
At its best, Bat Out of Hell: The Musical is very good. An unusual set is enhanced with great lighting and special effects, a very loud PA, and terrific individual and ensemble performances… Read More
2022-08-22 22:16
There is nothing profound in this tale of a flirty, impertinent, light-fingered, nosey, quickly-infatuated, selfish and self-absorbed, twenty-something PhD student in rent arrears and lackin… Read More
2022-08-18 23:42
Television documentaries tend to be quite formal and serious. They’re often logical, breaking down something complicated into easy-to-follow steps. My Old School throws those constrain… Read More
2022-08-16 19:24
Science fiction is rarely about space or aliens. It tends to be a lens through which audiences can examine human behaviour and the vices which cannot be shaken off. And so Jordan Peele&rsquo&hell…Read More
2022-08-15 18:52
Hit The Road is a beautiful, family drama. A road trip permeated by loss and imminent separation.While a mother (Pantea Panahiha) sings along with the car radio in the passenger seat, and a… Read More
Muldoon’s Picnic – Snacking On Imaginative Words And Great Music (Lyric Theatre With Poetry Ireland)
2022-08-14 17:15
Muldoon’s Picnic is an eclectic mix of poetry, prose and song, curated and emceed by Pulitzer-winning poet Paul Muldoon.After a spot of nearly-too-clever word play and an opening song… Read More
2022-08-09 23:59
Rounding off the St Mungo’s trilogy, Grimes and McKee are back with St Mungo’s The Ladies.When Dearbhla asks Uncle Club Chairman if she can start up a ladies team, she starts the… Read More
2022-08-05 21:58
Confession might be good for the soul. Nihilism is liberating. Two ideas that are running through 22-year-old Erin’s mind as she sits down to hand over four life-changing and destructi… Read More
2022-08-03 23:56
Michael Cameron’s play Carson and the Lady begins as a rather neatly crafted drawing room play, set in 1914, in Antrim Castle, the home of Lord and Lady Massereene. Ethel Gillingham is… Read More
2022-08-03 10:21
The premise of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers is straightforward. Poverty forces a working-class mother in Liverpool to separate her twin baby boys shortly after birth. A single parent… Read More
2022-08-01 22:17
If Dundalk was a bigger town, Aoife might be a gangster. Instead, she’s the pill-peddling drug dealer most people seek out in the area. When someone catches her eye in a pub on a trip… Read More
2022-07-30 11:47
British Youth Music Theatre have been back in Belfast at the Lyric Theatre. They specialise in rehearsing and staging new musical theatre. Breadboy builds on two previous pre-pandemic runs o… Read More
2022-07-27 20:14
When Mully (Charlie Reid) spots his father (Lochlann O’Mearáin) stealing the money raised at a hospice charity fundraiser in the memory of his dead mum, the young lad grabs the… Read More
2022-07-26 13:38
Within the opening ten minutes of In the Name of the Son, actor Shaun Blaney has conveyed Gerry Conlon’s journey into and out of prison, through his bespoke shop-lifting which was inte… Read More
2022-07-23 12:16
The Grand Opera House Trust delivers a swashbuckling summer youth production of The Pirates of Penzance with a cast well north of a hundred cramming onto the stage and aisles to bring Gilber… Read More
2022-07-21 10:05
The natural history embedded in the debut novel of Delia Owen jumps off the page and onto the cinema screen in Where the Crawdads Sing. The North Carolina waterways and marsh land, the insec… Read More
2022-06-10 13:39
Stones In His Pockets is now over 25 years old and continues to speak to audiences. It’s about the equation of dreams, hope, agency and acceptance. Local audiences on its home island m… Read More
2022-06-07 17:48
Could there be a better time for the musical Chicago to be on tour?The current UK production opened in Belfast on the evening that a British Prime Minster with a much-debated relationship wi… Read More
Between Two Worlds – Exposing The Unseen Gig Economy Or Exploiting The Exploited? (QFT Until 2 June)
2022-05-28 13:13
Between Two Worlds (Ouistreham) could have been a Ken Loach/I, Daniel Blake style exposé of the French social security system, unpicking the heartless bureaucracy of benefits processe… Read More
2022-05-23 07:55
I’ve seen the trailer for the Top Gun sequel more frequently than the original film.* The teaser for Top Gun Maverick was rolled out every time cinemas reopened over the last two years… Read More
2022-05-21 16:00
Jessica Swale’s fast moving play Blue Stockings examines the lead-up to the 1897 Cambridge University vote on whether women should be allowed to graduate. Seen through the eyes of four… Read More
2022-05-21 15:20
Benediction is one of those films that casts a dark shadow over your soul that lingers long after you leave the cinema. Your gut will churn until the next warning. I’m not sure if that… Read More
2022-05-12 23:38
Oh what a tangled web we weave … and there are quite a lot of tangled webs to choose from at the minute.The mystery of who will be the second DUP MLA for Lagan Valley was solved this… Read More
2022-05-09 17:45
Cáit is alone in the middle of an already crowded and noisy household that is about to welcome another mouth to feed. She’s a middle child who is neglected at home, and lacks co… Read More
2022-05-05 22:32
As Jeremy Wolfe McCarthy sits down to turn out some tunes, the silky-tongued piano man (played by Kyron Bourke) finds himself confronted by his past, in particular, the women that he schmooz… Read More
2022-05-03 11:53
In this deadpan and sometimes dark off-grid comedy about escapism, Martin can no longer live in the modern world that he finds overwhelming. Yet, clothed in pelt and hunting for food, he can… Read More
2022-05-01 16:39
If the script of Translations was pitched to a producing theatre today, I wonder would it be returned with the electronic equivalent of red pen suggesting that it was too baggy, had too many… Read More
2022-04-29 13:04
Evacuated from London to the English countryside during the Blitz, three orphaned siblings explore loss, companionship and self-belief against a backdrop of war, witchcraft and wizardry. Dis… Read More
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