Theatre Review: Arlington at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin

4/5

On the same night his new play The Same opened in Cork, Enda Walsh’s Arlington began a renewal at the Abbey, a first outing at the national theatre for a man who has, over the last several of years, become arguably Irish theatre’s leading brand.

To describe Arlington as a series of stories told by characters in confined spaces is to risk making it sound more like “the same” too — the usual (if effective) Walsh formula. But that would not do justice to the step forward this represents for Walsh the theatre-maker. He directs here too, and, in that role, has recruited the raw and wrenching choreography of Emma Martin, the stark design of Jack Phelan and Jamie Vartan, and the music of Teho Teardo to create a piece that achieves a striking, category- defying completeness of vision and mood.