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 IRISH TIMES Tuesday May 11, 2010
Five Ways to Drown
Dublin Dance Festival, Project Arts Centre
In past years, the Dublin Dance Festival was launched at glitzy openings in the Abbey Theatre by the likes of Merce Cunningham and Mark Morris, but this year the honour went to the young Irish company Junk Ensemble in the more intimate Project Arts Centre. Writing in the programme, festival director Laurie Uprichard urges audiences to “take a chance and be curious”, a catch cry that could be applied to her programming.
There may have been many prudent reasons to forsake the gala, but choosing a new work by a relatively new company reflects Uprichard’s curatorial bravery, a gamble that paid off both at the box office and on stage.
Five Ways to Drown introduces us to a slice of beige family life, where the dull feeling of futility constantly gnaws on the soul.
Choreographers Jessica and Megan Kennedy are joined by Lee Clayden, Mary O’Connor and the young Joshua Dyson, whose boyish attention-seeking contrasts with the rest of the family who are drowning in mundanity and oblivious to the richness of life possible through his eyes. Instead, he measures ambition in a proud collection of cub-scout badges for pursuits such as Morse code, rope skills and swimming.
Typically for Junk Ensemble, there is an attractively unvarnished feel to Five Ways to Drown and the choreographers are happy to let images and vignettes speak for themselves so that the audience find their own connections. But the drowning metaphor is never far away. Aedin Cosgrove’s impressive visual setting includes watery images behind a scrim, while Denis Clohessy’s music features breathy songs and the wheezy lungs of accordion and harmonium played live onstage. Even a final unison quartet, with joyous leaps and lurches, is punctuated with mouthfuls of water spat out onstage, as if expectorating a dull past.
Junk Ensemble regulars might yearn for more of the intriguing obtuseness of past works, but Five Ways to Drown is absorbing and affecting – and a fitting opener to this year’s Dublin Dance Festival.
MICHAEL SEAVER
THE IRISH TIMES review of Five Ways to Drown, 2010