Gabriel Byrne: Walking with Ghosts has opened at the Apollo Theatre in London.
In this acclaimed one-man show, the Hollywood star performs from his best-selling memoir, directed by three-time Emmy award-winner Lonny Price.
This reviews round-up includes reviews from the Apollo Theatre London run, and reviews from the tour of this show leading up to West End run at the Apollo.
Walking with Ghosts is playing at the Apollo Theatre until 17 September 2022.
Book tickets to Gabriel Byrne: Walking with Ghosts at the Apollo Theatre in London
Gabriel Byrne: Walking with Ghosts reviews
"Gabriel Byrne’s trip down Dublin’s memory lanes"
The actor adapts his impressionistic memoir for the stage, giving life to the characters he observed as a boy in the ‘theatre of the street’"
"Byrne is here to offer thumbnail sketches of the ghosts – whether family, friends or the long-gone film icons of his childhood – who have stayed with the actor into his eighth decade."
"Byrne finds a sense of belonging – after stints as a plumber and a dishwasher – through the theatre, depicting the warmth while also puncturing the pomposity he encounters in his first forays into am-dram. The memoir recounted his first romances but the grand passion in this stage version is, fittingly, for acting itself. As he recreates his first cinema trip with his grandmother, we see laughter, fear and above all bliss spread across his face and he is a child again."
Reviewed at the Gaiety theatre, Dublin
"Entertaining tale of booze, burn-out and stardom"
"In a monologue based on his unusually fluent autobiography, published two years ago, the Irish actor — a heart-throb to many, but a much more crumpled and vulnerable soul underneath it all — traces the path he has taken from humble beginnings in Dublin to rubbing shoulders with Richard Burton."
"If that makes it sound like a lugubrious, self-lacerating confessional, rest assured that the evening — fluently directed by Lonny Price — is hugely entertaining too."
Reviewed at the National Opera House, Wexford
"This enthralling evening is one of Gabriel Byrne’s greatest achievements"
"The veteran Irish star finds numinous wonder amid accreted nuggets of existence in this soulful staging of his 2020 memoir"
"... this relatively modest project, a small hillock of a solo show, in which the 72-year-old star surveys his life and career, deserves to be ranked as one of his greatest achievements, even if it’s the definition of evanescent."
"He’s funny, rueful – damaged..."
"A soulful evening that finds numinous wonder amid accreted nuggets of existence."
Reviewed at the Edinburgh International Festival.
"Gabriel Byrne is captivating in one-man show Walking with Ghosts"
"The actor returns to the Dublin stage with stories from his life and his hometown"
"There is a bit too much about the rare old times during the first hour of Walking with Ghosts, and not all Byrne’s Dublin anecdotes are sufficiently distinctive or structured. But under Lonny Price’s nimble direction, Byrne’s self-effacing charisma remains captivating throughout this two-and-a-half-hour show (with an interval). The genial septuagenarian also displays impressive range as he pivots between moments of searing pathos and a playful comic register."
Reviewed at the Gaiety theatre, Dublin
"A beguiling Gabriel Byrne opens up"
"The acclaimed Irish actor adapts his memoir into a stirring one-man show"
"He’s shown a West End audience what we’ve been missing, a performer who can mix the light and the dark, the comic and searingly dramatic"
Reviewed at the Apollo Theatre London
"Gabriel Byrne brilliantly channels his early Dublin years"
"This is an entertaining, moving, accomplished show"
"Byrne’s default expression is of modest dejection belied only by shining eyes – he reminds us of how much understated acting can deliver."
