The Engine

  FRANCISCO DE ZURBARAN at the National Gallery on the 10 th of August 2026   Francisco de Zurbaran (1598-1664) was born in the remote Spanish province of Extremadura (meaning ‘hard earth’) but was sent to Seville in 1614 by his father to become the apprentice of Pedro Diaz de Villanueva, an artist of which not much is known.   Seville had become rich from the wealth of the Americas, and it was here that Zurbaran began to build an extensive clientele among the religious orders who had begun to benefit from this wealth and wanted expressive, new art that would reinforce the supposed spiritual certainties that they espoused.   Zurbaran depicted religious scenes to order, realist work with surreal elements. Zurbaran depicted classic church iconography such as Madonna and Child, the Crucifixion, martyrs and saints with a new emphasis on historical detail and research.   For instance, in his work The Circumcision (1639, oil on canvas) he draws, with accuracy,...

  STEEL MAGNOLIAS by ROBERT HARLING at the LYRIC THEATRE, BELFAST on the 17 th of June 2026 L-R Orla Mullan, Eimhear Jackson, Carol Moore and Marion O'Dwyer in Steel Magnolias, photograph by Carrie Davenport Steel Magnolias is a play that seems to be in the southern Gothic genre but it’s a traditional melodrama, more Meet me in St Louis than A Streetcar named Desire.   The conservative aesthetic means that the play has one set, the interior of Truvy’s hair salon, decked out in lipstick colours and conventional, period furniture (the play is set in the 1980s).    Like Meet me in St Louis the play marks itself out temporally in terms of traditional seasonal festivities like Xmas, the highpoints of the year when families tend to come together. Janet Moran as M'Lynn and Simone Collins as Shelby in Steel Magnolias Steel Magnolias is a dialogue centric drama and plot is virtually irrelevant.   We are told in the first scene that the central character Shelby (...

  TEA IN A CHINA CUP by CHRISTINA REID directed by DAN GORDON at the LYRIC THEATRE on the 6 th of MAY 2026 Amy Molloy as Beth - Tea in a China Cup   The Lyric theatre’s new production of Tea in a China Cup by Cristina Reid is a revival of the 1983 production first presented at the Belfast Festival. Mary Moulds as Sarah and Amy Molloy as Beth - Tea in a China Cup The backdrop to the first scene is a dark tenement row indicative of hopelessness, depression and death.   Perspectival lines seem skewed and offset, the mise en scene owes something to the expressionist tradition.   The sound design consists of traditional Belfast songs and tunes as well as rumbustious orange standards such as The Sash.   The playwright is located in this working-class milieu yet also directs the audience’s attention to other possibilities. The play is rooted in the experiences of working-class women as they experience the turbulence of WW2 and extends through to the beginning o...

  ROBIN HOOD the PANTO, MOSSLEY MILL THEATRE, NEWTOWNABBEY on the 22 nd of December 2025   Aaron Ferguson as the Sherrif of Nottingham Yellow Jumper is a theatre group based in Belfast.   Their new production is Robin Hood, a pantomime for Xmas based on well-known traditional material complete with pop songs and pop shows adapted into the panto’s texture.   There’s nothing much that’s original about the panto’s material, but it cheerily adapts and transforms in a show that is fun entertainment for families.   Tiarnan McCarron as Robin Hood The tone of the piece is brash and confident as it retreads the traditional panto format.   Audience participation was encouraged and this is what made it a fun evening.   Members of the audience were brought up to the stage to do their bit and the audience, including this reviewer, were sprayed with water as the Sherrif of Nothingman and Robin Hood fought it out in the auditorium.   The audience were cle...

  DENOUEMENT at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast on the 23 rd of October 2025 Patrick O'Kane as Liam and Anna Healy as Edel This new play Denouement at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, was a pleasant surprise as the content diverged from the expected literary content, as expressed by the play’s title.   Ultimately, the play was not overly literary, but a better title would enhance things. Extraordinary elements are explained by the surround sound of a world war which is sometimes far and sometimes harrowingly close.   Television sets scattered around the set send warnings but also entertain with banal musicals.   Old technology like a typewriter is contrasted with jarringly new elements like mobile phones and the internet. Minor catastrophes intrude on Liam and Edel’s existence such as a crashed van and distant explosions.   Friends phone the couple to be admonished.   A constant metallic buzz surrounds the action, murmuring irritatingly, becoming a crescendo. ...

  ELECTRIC DREAMS at the TATE MODERN on the 30 th of May 2025 Eduardo Kac, Horny, 1985. Tate. Lent by the Tate Americas Foundation, courtesy of the Latin American Acquisitions Committee 2018 © Eduardo Kac This is an exhibition bound to connect generations.   Adults and children were present, all enjoying the interactive mysteries on display. François Morellet, Random distribution of squares using the π number decimals, 50% odd digit blue, 50% even digit red , 1963 installation view, Atkinson Museum, Porto, 2023. © François Morellet. Photo courtesy Atkinson Museum Electric Dreams connects the analogue era to our own digital time, it also references the song Together in Electric Dreams , co-written by Phillip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder in 1984.   Briefly, in the not-too-distant past, meaning the 1980s, there were four TV channels, broadsheet newspapers, telephone booths that worked, there were no mobile phones, and people still wrote and posted letters.   The exh...