Ireland day 1229. Saturday 08 February 2025- Dr Strangelove

Today’s summary	Had a quiet morning then after a sandwich lunch went into Dublin to see the play “Dr Strangelove” starring Steve Coogan at the Bord Gáis Energy theatre. We enjoyed seeing the theatre but the play itself felt a bit flat. 3/5 on my score. Had fish finger curry for dinner in the evening (surprisingly delicious!) and finished off watching “Godfather II” on Amazon
Today’s weather	Overcast cool and rainy all day. Light north easterly wind. Appx 5c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

One of Dublin’s iconic performance venues is the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, close to the Liffey in Dublin’s dockland area. We had never visited and today we set out to address that gap in our Dublin experiences.

First, though, we had a relatively relaxed morning – the regulation cups of tea, then a bit of shopping, and topped off with a quick sandwich lunch. Then, just before 1pm, we went down to the station to catch a convenient DART into Pearse station. Once again I marvelled at the OAP gift of free travel (which also includes Val when she travels with me on my “+spouse” card). It’s a ten minute walk from Pearse down to the theatre – along Pearse Street which, in all honesty, isn’t one of Dublin’s nicest thoroughfares. Especially today in the rain, grey and general muckiness.

Today, we were heading to the theatre to watch a matinee performance of Steve Coogan (of Alan Partridge fame) starring in “Dr Strangelove”. It’s a stage adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s iconic 1964 film. Eventually we made it through the rain from Pearse and into the melee of the theatre foyer. We had a 30 minute wait for curtain up and used it to get some refreshments from the bar. Once seated, the theatre is impressive. Modern and well laid out (though I think it could do with a centre aisle in the Circle area, as the rows are very long) and on a rough guess, seating about 2,000 punters.

Then the play started. Steve Coogan carried out his (four) role(s) well, though perhaps not quite as impressively as I had hoped. The supporting cast were very competent, but nobody really stood out. The play was entertaining though had been a bit “padded” to enable an interval to be inserted (we didn’t partake of the ice cream – nothing cost less than €5!). Overall, I think our view of the play was that it was slightly disappointing. It felt like a three star performance, out of five. And at €90 each for a fairly ordinary seat, not really the best value for money

The return journey to Malahide was straightforward – aided by a cup of tea from the doughnut shop at Pearse station, and also by the fact that we were traveling in the late afternoon, rather than the late evening. I have a bit of an aversion to Irish public transport after about 7pm.

Once we were back in the flat, Val immediately set to and rustled up an amazingly delicious fish finger curry for dinner (go ahead – try it and be surprised!). Then we finished off the evening with the rest of “The Godfather II” – an altogether far more classy production than Dr Strangelove on stage. So all in all, a very worthwhile day – we learned a lot and are glad we made the time and financial investment in the visit – even if we wouldn’t necessarily rush back to the Bord Gáis in a hurry.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Pearse Street. Not my favourite spot in Dublin	Val scurrying for shelter out of the rain!

Looking out from theatre over to docklands	In the lobby of the theatre. Quite nice – definitely glad we’ve been



Theatre beginning to fill up. I’d guess that by curtain-up about 90% of the seats were taken