By Owen McCafferty Produced by Solas Nua and Tinderbox Theatre Company (Belfast) Directed by Des Kennedy Reviewed by Tim Treanor In Mojo/Mickybo, Owen McCafferty’s two-man tragedy staged by Keegan last January, Belfast bled all over the stage, as the City’s ceaseless Catholic-Protestant conflict made mincemeat out of two young boys’ friendship, and out of everything […]
Callie Kimball Talks with Big Picture Director
Belfast director Des Kennedy is in town to direct his first U. S. production, Solas Nua’s Scenes from the Big Picture by Owen McCafferty (Mojo/ Mickybo). Callie Kimball, popular DC playwright and actress, leads Des in a lively conversation about the day-in-Belfast play, his take on American actors, his unusual techniques for rehearsing Big Picture‘s […]
The Small Things
Produced by Solas Nua Reviewed by Ronnie Ruff Podcast with Kate Debelack by Joel Markowitz with Lorraine Treanor (follows the review) Chris Davenport and Kate Debelack (Photo: C. Stanley Photography) Irish playwright Enda Walsh, who was recently appointed Playwright in Residence for Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, is becoming very familiar to Washington audiences. His 2005 play The […]
Bedbound Breaks Barriers
Bed Bound — Solas Nua By: Ronnie Ruff Edna Walsh has yet to achieve the popularity in America that Conor McPherson has but he is, none the less, one of the most important new playwrights in contemporary Irish theatre. Solas Nua, one of the most exciting local theatre companies around has mounted Bedbound, Walsh’s 2000 play […]
Beckett’s 100th birthday bash
Chief Ike’s Mambo Room was the venue for Solas Nua and Forum’s Beckett 100 year birthday party on Tuesday night. I arrived around five thirty just in time to find the Solas Nua crew blowing up the balloons. Our staff writer Tim Treanor and his wife Lorraine Treanor arrived shortly thereafter and our reporting crew […]
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Want a book?
Solas Nua is busy giving out books all over DC today. You can get yours at Love Café, Warehouse Café, The Embassy of Ireland, Chinatown Metro, Metro Center, Dupont Circle Metro, Capitol South Metro and outside M.L.K. Library. Also there is a piece in today’s Post about The Mai and the company. Christina Talcott chatted […]
Review: The Mai, Irish tragedy liltingly told by Solas Nua
Irish playwright Marina Carr offers many observations of importance in The Mai currently mounted at The Josephine Butler Arts Center in Columbia Heights. One of note is “Everyone is deranged — Some people just hide it better.” Another and the central theme of the play is “There are two kinds of people — there are those […]
Review: Mark O’Rowe’s Howie the Rookie
Seeing a Solas Nua production is a lot like getting to ride the biggest baddest rollercoaster without having to go to a big, impersonal amusement park. This is theatre that is so up front and personal that you find yourself totally immersed in the characters and their out of control ride through Dublin nightlife. Dan […]
Dan Brick stars as MisterMan at DCAC
MisterMan is forty five minutes of Dan Brick and that alone is enough reason for anyone to see this one man show at DC Arts Center. Mr. Brick is able to take command of an audience with great skill. His has an ability to bring a smile to your face while knowing full well that […]
Disco Pigs – Solas Nua
Pig and Runt, two club kids growing up in Cork, Ireland have a lot to say–and for the most part they say it through their actions and emotions rather than dialog that one can readily understand. In fact they have developed a special language they share in their own private world. Like relationships in real […]