THE IRISH TIMES review of The Bystander, Dublin Theatre Festival 2018
THE REVIEWS HUB review of The Bystander, Dublin Theatre Festival 2018
THE ARTS REVIEW review of The Bystander, Dublin Theatre Festival 2018
IRISH TIMES review of Man At The Door (Number 54), Cork Midsummer Festival 2018
IRISH TIMES review of Dolores, Dublin Dance Festival 2018
IRISH INDEPENDENT review of Dolores, Dublin Dance Festival 2018
EXEUNT MAGAZINE review of Dolores, Dublin Dance Festival 2018
THE ARTS REVIEW review of Dolores, Dublin Dance Festival 2018
THE BIG LIST NI review of Soldier Still, Dublin Fringe Festival 2017
THE IRISH TIMES review of Soldier Still, Dublin Fringe Festival 2017
THE ARTS REVIEW review of Soldier Still, Dublin Fringe Festival 2017
EXEUNT MAGAZINE review of Soldier Still, Dublin Fringe Festival 2017
THE SCOTSMAN review of It Folds, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016
THE STAGE review of It Folds, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016
THE HERALD review of It Folds, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016
EXAMINER.COM review of Walking Pale, 2016
THE IRISH TIMES review of Dusk Ahead, 2015
THE IRISH TIMES review of It Folds, 2015
THE STATE OF THE ARTS review of It Folds, 2015
BROADWAY WORLD review of It Folds, 2015
LE COOL review of It Folds, 2015
THE NEW YORK TIMES review of Dusk Ahead, 2015
EXEUNT MAZAZINE review of The Falling Song, 2014
THE PUBLIC REVIEWS review of The Falling Song, 2014
THE STAGE review of The Falling Song, 2014
THE IRISH TIMES review of Dusk Ahead, 2013
THE SUNDAY TIMES review of Dusk Ahead, 2013
EXAMINER.COM review of Dusk Ahead, 2013
IRISH THEATRE MAGAZINE review of Dusk Ahead, 2013
IRISH INDEPENDENT review of Dusk Ahead, 2013
THE IRISH TIMES feature on junk ensemble and Dusk Ahead, 2013
IRISH EXAMINER review of Dusk Ahead, 2013
THE IRISH TIMES review of The Falling Song, 2012
IRISH THEATRE MAGAZINE review of The Falling Song, 2012
RACHEL DONNELLY review of The Falling Song, 2012
TOTALLY DUBLIN review of Bird with boy, 2012
THE SUNDAY TIMES review of Bird with boy, 2011
IRISH THEATRE MAGAZINE review of Bird with boy, 2011
THE IRISH TIMES review of Bird with boy, 2011
THE VIEW on RTE TELEVISION review of Five Ways to Drown, 2010
THE IRISH TIMES review of Five Ways to Drown, 2010
IRISH THEATRE MAGAZINE review of Five Ways to Drown, 2010
THE IRISH INDEPENDENT review of Five Ways to Drown, 2010
IRISH HERALD review of Five Ways to Drown, 2010
DANCE EUROPE review of Drinking Dust, 2009
THE IRISH TIMES review of Drinking Dust, 2008
THE METRO review of Drinking Dust, 2008
IRISH THEATRE MAGAZINE review of Drinking Dust, 2008
THE IRISH TIMES review of The Rain Party, 2007
THE IRISH INDEPENDENT review of The Rain Party, 2007
THE METRO review of The Rain Party, 2007
THE STAGE
IT FOLDS AT SUMMERHALL, EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL 2016
**** FOUR STARS
STUART PRINGLE
August 16 2016
It Folds review at Summerhall, Edinburgh – ‘harrowing and elegiac’
In 2013, Dublin-based company Brokentalkers brought the gut-thumping Have I No Mouth to Edinburgh, the profoundly personal story of the death of director Feidlim Cannon’s father 10 years previously. This year they return with a similarly mournful collaboration with dance group Junk Ensemble: It Folds, a less spiky work that takes an elegiac route through unimaginable tragedy.
A child has gone missing, possibly abducted, possibly dead. We hear from him in the guise of a white-sheeted ghost, and then we see him as a plaything, thrown back and forth, and then as a child’s corpse, dragged through grave-dirt by a shivering angel. His parents’ marriage falls apart, the father was late picking him up from school, and the mother slaps him as he explains. We see them as two parts of a pantomime horse, ripping itself apart.
The imagery is at once haunting and beguiling, the musical interludes, whether in the form of a ballad strummed on a banjo or a full choir of ghosts that permute the phrase ‘Happy Birthday’, are spine-tingling. But, particularly set against Have I No Mouth, there’s a lack of real edge to the material. The wounds left by that earlier show still sting three years on – It Folds builds and passes like a the shadow of some terrible, beautiful dream.
THE STAGE review of It Folds, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016