Just been to BLOW UP THE LIFFEY BRIDGES. Its really awful ;-(

cgarrad

Left at the interval along with a large percentage of the other theater goers.

Absolutely awful, stereotypical north/southside gags, no character empathy and awful song lyrics.

I have never seen so many people leave an event before!

Avoid at all costs, sell your tickets to some other unlucky person if you have any

amdublin

Eek! I'm going this week!

Will report back when I see it!!!

cgarrad

Well fore warned is fore armed ;-)

Get hammered!

Browning

Just back and I gotta agree with with OP. I dont think awful describes Blow up the Liffey bridges. Why ? This is just pointless, rubbish. I really enjoyed One night in Istanbul and I went thinking at least it would be good for a laugh. Thank god we did not pay full price for the tickets and on reflection now I can see why. Oh my god the critics will flitter this one. Im not sure which was worse Mrs Fagan Dublin accent or the storyline or lack of. The only good point was Vogue Williams legs and there is quite a lot too them. From what I could see around me alot of people left at the interval. I felt a little sorry for the cast at the end as the applause was muted to say the least. Pure trash, don't bother is my advice. Save the hard earned € for something worthwhile.

Beau

Can't believe how bad this was, it was an experience to say the least! I don't know why they have songs in it if most of the cast can't sing. I had my hands covering my face in some parts it was so cringe worthy. What about the cast singing and clapping at the end?

cgarrad

Beau wrote: »

...... clapping at the end?

The cast were clapping you for staying for the whole show probably

Surprised at the Grand Canal allowing such rubbish tbh.

poteen

Ive heard alot of bad reports about the grand canal in recent times. People are saying that there is too much noise during the shows from people eating and munching and noise from wrapperts . Its a theatre , not a restaurant.

Winnietheshoe

It was GODAWFUL.

The crap Dublin accents, total lack of storyline, diabolical singing voices/tunes/dancing, the 'fat' chips loving Ms Fagan being the thinnest on stage & no ending. It was horrendous.

I'm grateful that wasn't my first time to Grand Canal.

julies boy

we came we saw we cringed and that was the opening song ,but not to fear it got worse a hell of a lot worse
one thing it reminded me off ,as they cracked an unfunny joke about was the x factors reject ,i did wonder were they were recruted !!!! it could have been ?
to give a gidance to how bad it was the one box that was in use had 8 people in it at the start by the intervil there were two holding out
we staied to the end we were going to run at the intervil but we stuck it that long it cant get worse ?

in all honesty they should be giveing refunds its a discrase :mad::mad:

laursok

Last night I had to sit through the worst play of my life, I can’t believe that the Grand Canal Theatre could allow rubbish such as this in their venue. I wasted my time and money on this so called comedy play. I cringed and yawned and watched the clock for this entire show hoping it would get better but it got worse. And the vulgarity at the end was totally irrelevant to the play and utterly disgraceful.

muzygirl

I'm still in shock as to how BAD it was!! Even the sound quality!! I left at the interval too - wonder how many stayed? I'd say a good 2 thirds of us left... surely we're entitled to our money back or something? Might send an email to citydeal and grand canal theatre. What a waste of time and money!! I was so disappointed!! :mad:

nyconuntouch

i heard on the grapevine (facebook) that this was pretty terrible.so i decided to look up to see what others thought (Obviosuly the same thing). People must leave every night at the interval.

i'm going to see this with my girlfriend tomorrow, i am now thinking i should probably plan an alternative for the rest of the night considering the expectation i now have.

Is it possible that it will be ridiculously funny because its so bad? (thats what happened when i saw that film V for Vendetta, laughed through it because i'd wasted money on such a bad bad film)

laursok

Try and get a refund, don't waste your time!

Beau

nyconuntouch wrote: »

Is it possible that it will be ridiculously funny because its so bad?

There's a bit of that in it to be honest, but if I was to go back in time I wouldn't go again.

A Polish couploe from work went the same night, I was looking forward top laughing about it with them but they liked it! They thought it was really funny and liked the accent. Bizarre..

Gillette

I have NEVER used social media for anything. But I'm just back (sorry if any cast members are reading this - I feel bad but for €70 a ticket it should have been better) but it was dreadful
The old lady's accent was an attempt to be dublin (i think) but it sounded ridiculous - like someone doing an imitation when they were nothing like it, only really loud and wouldn't stop it. Songs were dreadful, ending was very weak. Three english guys were good and holy oaks was strong but the script wasn't clever, or funny, or sad.... being generous it just wasn't ready.

Do not go - honestly.

Lishie

I went to Blow Up The Liffey Bridges last night and also left at the interval. I would have left earlier but was trapped in the middle of a gigantic row of people. It was honestly the worst thing I have ever seen - an appalling script and terrible acting with the worst Dublin accents. If you have a ticket already, give it to someone you really don't like. Avoid at all costs!

ro_bilco

Lishie wrote: »

I went to Blow Up The Liffey Bridges last night and also left at the interval. I would have left earlier but was trapped in the middle of a gigantic row of people. It was honestly the worst thing I have ever seen - an appalling script and terrible acting with the worst Dublin accents. If you have a ticket already, give it to someone you really don't like. Avoid at all costs!

This is exactly the review my wife gave it when she went last night.

She (and her friends) also left at the interval along with the majority of the audience.

How can something so bad get into the GCT ?

auzworld

First time I left a show.... GOD .. you think they could have made it funny.. it had alot of potential... instead .. a cheap looking set.. not set changes... I expected to see taxi drivers having an interesting conversations with paying public which would could have been interlinked someway.. god I could of made a better play .... least I would not leave. Not up my street at all lads...

Goscinny

In true Comic Book Guy form the Simpsons....

WORST PLAY EVER!!!!!

I have NEVER left a performance at the interval until last night. The Theatre should be ashamed of themselves for putting this on, and it's a very sad state of affairs when you have taxi drivers dropping over to the door staff to ask "Is there any left inside"??

Bless her, I did see Anne Doyle from RTE News going back in the for the 2nd half..... Fair play to her!

Virgo80

OMG is it really THAT bad? I got 2 tickets from citydeal for tonight, wer eonly 27€ for the pair. dont think Im bothered going now!!

Beau

I hope this doesn't disincentives other (good) productions to put up tickets on these deal sites, you would be skeptical of any other plays that put tickets up in the future.

dublincritic

Was this supposed to be a farce wrapped in a satire? I'm just confused. Racist commentary, incongruous accents, flat pitchy singing to reworked pop-tunes and a painfully stereotyped "rich girl". The actress whom played Molly was bad. In fact, they should ship her to Guantanamo and promise the prisoners they don't have to watch her perform if they'll just talk.
This was just a fail from the start. If the writer was attempting to create social commentary, he reached too far and then slipped.

This play is unwatchable. Granted I did fall asleep for about twenty minutes in the second half, but I'm not sure anything happened in those twenty minutes that would have redeemed the other fifteen hours I spent trapped in my seat.


As a general rule, I don't leave a theatre at intermission. I don't and I didn't this time. If I pay for a ticket, god help me, I will watch the entire performance no matter how torturous it is. That said, the couples on either side of me do not share my love of self-inflicted torture. They fled like cockroaches when a light is flipped on. You could almost hear them scurrying for the exit.

Avoid this at all costs.

maynoothman

I have a conspiracy theory that this play is sponsored by the Ely bar across the way from the Grand Canal Theatre. Before the "performance", the bar was hopping. At the interval of the play, the bar was hopping because so many people had left the theatre because of the rubbish on display. I was lucky that I had free tickets for the show, but I still demanded a refund!

Best entertainment for the night was the Copper Chopper flying around the city. God save the Queen:D

roaddawg

Went to see it tonight with my other half. Quite many people left after the first act. We were tempted, but stayed until the end.

Actress playing old lady Fagan was intolerably awful. Only 2 of the actors can actually sing and even the only half-decent solo was killed by bad sound.

As it was our first theatre experience in Dublin, we didn't really know what to expect. I'm just glad to read that this is not the real theatre level here

VisitorQ

I'm so happy to hear that most people who went to see it agree with my thoughts that it was an absolute pile of garbage. It seemed to emit a few chuckles from the crowd which really puzzled me as it just wasn't funny in the slightest. In the first half, I didn't laugh once. I think I may have grinned once in pity at the whole thing. I'd actually be embarrassed to be an actor in that crock of nonsense!

Everything about it was awful; there was not one redeeming feature! What I found most cringeworthy was how hard it tried to be funny and fell flat on its face everytime. In fact, i think the scriptwriter(talentless at that) must have realised how dreadful it was and decided to pepper the whole thing with as many curse words as humanly possible. It seemed like they were just swearing here, there and anywhere to compensate for the low quality of the plot and dialogue.

nyconuntouch

I had read the reviews on here and knew it was going to be rubbish, but went anyway (last night) to see how bad it was going to be, and trust me it was bad.

I was hoping it would be even cringe worthy funny, but it was just absolute rubbish!

the interval came out of nowhere, something was happening on stage and then the curtain came down all of a sudden, nobody knew what was going on. The look on peoples faces was priceless.

We decided to stick around for the second half to see how much worse it was going to get, we had a few giggles at how bad the performance was, I had prepared myself for a bad performance, but nothin close to what we got.

I wonder if Adrian Kennedy from fm104 knew how bad this was going to be before he gave his voiceover on it. i wonder if he'd bring it up on his show about how crap it was.

The show reminded me of a school play, actually i've seen better school plays.

GSH

Went last night and so sorry we didn't leave at the interval, casting, acting, accents, music, and singing aside there was completely no storyline to this play.

Never before have I seen people in the audience look to where two people clapped at one point to see did those people resemble one of the cast. At the interval people looked genuinely shocked it was so bad, at the interval you could see couples at the bar debating whether to return or not and many clearly chose not to.

This was my first time in the GCT and while the venue is very impressive, P45 in the post to the venue manager Stephen Faloon I am afraid.

muzygirl

sent GCT an email and I suggest everyone else do the same. The more of that complain, the better!
They replied apologizing that the show was... (and I quote) 'not to your liking' !!

dublincritic

I just emailed the GCT. This is an excellent idea and if everyone that paid good money for such a disaster should do the same. The email address is: justask@grandcanaltheatre.ie

mslady

I very nearly went to this tonight - figured I'd get tickets on the door - but thankfully I decided to check out some reviews in a moment of boredom at work this morning....I've dodged a bullet by the sounds of things!!

bkenny08

My god I have just left the show honesty the worst thing we have ever seen. Agree with other posts how could gct put this **** on avoid at all costs!!!

bkenny08

muzygirl wrote: »

sent GCT an email and I suggest everyone else do the same. The more of that complain, the better!
They replied apologizing that the show was... (and I quote) 'not to your liking' !!

just did!! I agree everyone should let them now how bad this show was.

amdublin

Dreadful.

Mail sent.

whoppa

bought two tickets on livingsocial for this show and went last night. Only sorry I didn't google it first and see this thread. It was God awful, left with my gf last night. Shocking performance by all involved. Looked like it was just slapped together last minute. worst play I was every at. The abbey would never have a play so terrible adorn their stage. shame on GCT for putting this play on.

nyconuntouch

Whats the email address to this guy?

lukegriffen

I (thankfullly) didn't see this play, but the original play was set in Liverpool, called "Brick Up The Mersey Tunnels". The author obviously thought he could transport it easily to Dublin.
I think I read somewhere that it saved the Liverppol Playhouse from bankruptcy coz it ran for so long...

It's on in Liverpool in June if anyone wants to see the original :-) !!!
from https://royalcourtliverpool.ticketsolve.com/shows/126511610/events

More than 130,000 people have poured through the doors to see this show since its debut in 2006. A brilliant comedy with music which has raced to the top of any “must see” list of Liverpool plays is back for 2011!

amdublin

lukegriffen wrote: »

I (thankfullly) didn't see this play, but the original play was set in Liverpool, called "Brick Up The Mersey Tunnels". The author obviously thought he could transport it easily to Dublin.
I think I read somewhere that it saved the Liverppol Playhouse from bankruptcy coz it ran for so long...

It's on in Liverpool in June if anyone wants to see the original :-) !!!
from https://royalcourtliverpool.ticketsolve.com/shows/126511610/events

More than 130,000 people have poured through the doors to see this show since its debut in 2006. A brilliant comedy with music which has raced to the top of any “must see” list of Liverpool plays is back for 2011!

The strange thing was it was set in Dublin. With two Dublin taxi companies. And then a group of Liverpool builders working on a site in Dublin

It was pure sh1te :mad:

Nolanger

Hello caller, Joe here, you're through to Liveline!