Gareth Stack

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Selection of articles written between 2005 and today.

  • Disco Pigs – Episode 10 – Reading Plays

    Arriving at the end of the nineteen nineties, at exactly the time Martin McDonagh was exploding the Irish national theatre with the first of his Leenane trilogy, Disco Pigs articulated a radical new vision of Irishness. An Irishness deracinated of nationalism, appalled by republicanism, raised on television and clubland. A dissolute Irishness – frozen in… Read more

  • Dublin Characters – Episode 6 – The Gareth Stack Show

    The Gareth Stack Show is back! Dublin’s most obscure chat show, featuring interviews with some of the dirty auld holes most fascinating characters, both pro patria and ex. Today’s episode comes complete with acoustamatic musing from Dublin low-fi warbler and nouveau booky wookie Bobert Ahern, monsternational filmist Donal Foreman, and Dublin scenestress Joanne Stack (yes… Read more

  • The Bald Soprano – Episode 9 – Reading Plays

    Quantum Physics, synchronicity, English mustachios, it has to be Eugene Ionesco’s ‘The Bald Soprano’ (La Cantatrice Chauve). This is a play for which context is essential: Beckett’s growing reputation in France at the beginning of the 1950’s. The efforts of dramatists who became known as the ‘theatre of the absurd’ to acknowledge the horrors of… Read more

  • Free Schools or No Schools

    Serious question: Why are we so comfortable with imprisoning children for 12 – 14 years? It seems the answer is we’ve constructed an economic system that requires both parents to work, for most of each weekday. Schools act in loco parentis, helping to tame children in preparation for an adulthood of service to industry. They… Read more

  • Doubt (Part 2) – Episode 8 – Reading Plays

    We conclude our discussion of JP Shanley’s classic play, doubt. Download: Episode 8 – Doubt (Part 2) ‘Reading Plays‘ is a discussion show, featuring Gareth Stack and James Van De Waal. Each week we do a close reading of a modern play, discussing it’s merits, themes, issues raised, and so on. You can play along… Read more

  • Reading Plays – Interview – Cast of ‘Welcome to the Ethics Committee’

    We interview the cast of the recent Smock Alley production of ‘Welcome to the Ethics Committee’. The play was based on the collaborative fiction project, The SCP Foundation, and was written and directed by Katherine Farmar. We spoke to some members of the cast – Elitsa Dimova, Libby Russell, Jack Beglin, Liam Hallahan, and Declan… Read more