Nobody actually shouted “hit the bitch” during the previous Dublin run of Oleanna – as happened on Broadway – but Irish audiences were sharply divided in terms of the male and female adversaries in David Mamet’s controversial play. Personally, I found the polemical exchanges at the heart of the production a little ham-fisted.

However, no such criticism can be levelled at Dana Bladsoe who returns to star in a limited run of Oleanna, back at the Gate Theatre from February 14th. With a theme that is echoed in the latest Michael Douglas and Demi Moore movie Harassment, it should be interesting to draw comparisons between the way this topical subject is covered in theatre as opposed to on the screen.

If successive Irish Governments hadn’t been lost up their own asses in relation to the legitimacy of film as an art form, this country could already have its own film archive of classic Irish plays. No doubt Brian Friel’s Philadelphia, Here I Come would have a prime position in any such filmic record of great Irish dramatic achievements.

A new production of the play returns to the Abbey Theatre on February 15th. At this point I better desist from making any comment on Abbey Artistic Director Patrick Mason’s paranoia about the media or I’ll simply feed that false perspective. However he really can’t be faulted for providing space for productions such as Friel’s exploration of the turmoil faced by a young man on the eve of his departure for America.

David Parnell plays Gar Public, while his private persona is played by Darragh Kelly. Rosaleen Linehan is Madge, with supporting roles by the likes of Charlie Bonner, Des Cave and Peader Lamb. It is directed by Mason himself and designed by Paul McCauley.

Somewhat more avant garde is the Meridian production of Anthony Neilson’s “gripping psycho drama” Normal , which runs for one week only at the Project Arts Centre. As a tale in which the lead character modelled himself on Jack the Ripper, it opens quite fittingly on the night when all black romantics come out to draw a little blood – St Valentine’s Night. ‘Not suitable for children,’ says the Press release. Obviously this also applies to romance too!

Also Recommended: According to Sartre ‘hell is other people’ and love is little more than a power struggle between the sexes. Other manifestations of his philosophy are examined in Men Without Shadows, which opens February 2nd at the Focus Theatre.