Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales are a range of satirical poems with sometimes questionable morals, penned almost a century ago. Here the poems, originally intended to warn children of the dangers of misbehaving, are interpreted with simplistic staging and effective design by this university company. Reminiscent of works by Lewis Carroll and a strong influence on […]

Stuart Bowden’s one-man show explores a dystopian future, where love is a luxury and loneliness common currency. Bernard, Sarah and Celeste are the only people that the narrator meets in fourteen years, and it turns out that Sarah and Celeste are one and the same person. Perhaps loneliness is a tricky subject for a whimsical […]

An office worker transforms into an action hero in this energetic physical production by the Corn Exchange, Dublin. Think The Secret Life of Walter Mitty meets Hitchcock’s The Lodger meets the latest SF blockbuster or fantasy computer game. The juxtaposition of inane chit-chat and life-or-death fights provides plenty of humour. The humming of the photocopier becomes the buzzing of […]

From the opening sequence of Street Dreams it’s clear that this is puppetry with conviction. Fluffy white bags (birds, clouds, kites, ra-ra skirts?) fly rapidly across the stage. The same energy is felt when banana skins buzz into action. In contrast, the story of Street Dreams is meandering. A gentleman puppet with a gently quizzical expression wanders through a […]

One of three shows Belt Up are presenting at this year’s Fringe, for Outland the company jumped headfirst down a rabbit hole into the wonderful world of Lewis Carroll. They surfaced, a little crumpled, to create a frantic three-hander vignette that feels a bit concertinaed but is never dull. In a cosy room encased with a wardrobe, […]