Writer: Anna D

Director: Eftychia Spyridaki

Writer, performer and spoken word poet Anna D delivers her debut play, Roots in Every Room, to the Project Arts Centre. Directed by Eftychia Spyridaki, this 50 minute show blends theatre, film and spoken word poetry in an innovative expression of feminism and rebellion. After a sold out show at Dublin Fringe, Roots in Every Room is back by popular demand. 

Anna D stands like a life drawing model as the audience takes their seats. Behind her a lingerie laundry line, complete with stained knickers, several négligée, and a Lolitaesque child’s dress. All very Tracey Emin. The screens and projector showing dreamscape videos are more reminiscent of Marina Abramovic, to reference a second and final groundbreaking visual artist. 

Roots in Every Room is a series of monologues, describing various stages of womanhood, punctuated by descriptions of dreams passed down through Anna D’s matrilineal lineage. Puberty, male suicide, ingrained misogyny and motherhood are all key themes in this powerful work. The dialogue is all in verse, unsurprising from the All-Ireland Slam Poetry champion. Filmmaker Greg Purcell and composer Peter Power do a great job of bringing the production to life, but Anna D is a force of nature on stage regardless. 

The play is angry and poignant, as Anna D rhymes facts and observations at the audience, willing them to see the fractures in society that are embedded in Irish culture. Behind her, names of women flash across the screen, the 286 women who have been violently killed in Ireland in the past 30 years, 63% of them in their own homes. References to Giselle Pelicot and the fifty men who lived by her are similarly powerful.

At one point towards the end, Anna D dons a black veil, in the vein of Róis, or anyone performing a caoineadh. The play combines modern day, gritty Ireland with the roots of culture and tradition superbly. Roots in Every Room is outstanding.

Runs Until 18 July 2026.

First published in Theatre Weekly Magazine, July 2026

https://www.thereviewshub.com/roots-in-every-room-project-arts-centre-dublin/#google_vignette