Reviews

Arthur O'Riordan was struggling with his new play. “I need a song where a Nobel physicist is anxious to get his leg over”, he thought.

It's tough trying to listen to Joy Division; not because of the sparse, industrial music that compliment Ian Curtis' mournful lyrics and monotone voice can sometimes leave a listener cold, but because it's hard not to think that every song was a suicide note. 

A new Irish band hits the touring circuit. It is time to take note.

One would usually not expect to see a man with dreadlocks, eyeliner, suitcase and record player walk on stage in a small country pub. But as the audience soon learned when the gig in question is a gig with Duke Special the ordinary gets thrown out the window.

Writing in the late 19th century, Anton Chekhov's entire breadth of work absorbs the fundamentals of the Russian gentrified class's imperialist condition. Regularly creating a portrait of country life outside the populist urban cities his plays formed a type of social diary of the period as he consistently infused his narrative with themes like the declination of aristocratic society, financial difficulties on rural estates, and the overall effects of these twin themes on the family as a whole.

Colin Murphy picks some highlights from the Dublin Theatre Festival, which runs until 14 October

Cult director Tarantino fails to deliver in his new movie, Death Proof, but Michael Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart pleases where he had previously disappointed. By Gavin Burke

A eco-friendly centre in Dublin's Temple Bar, Cultivate, is running a number of eco-events over the next few weeks.

The Spiegeltent has become the central focus of the Dublin Fringe Festival. But the rest of the fetivals offerings should not be overlooked. By Colin Murphy