Roots in Every Room – Project Arts Centre – Review
by Frank L.

Roots in Every Room – Written and Performed by Anna D
Dates & Times – 15 – 18 July

Roots in Every Room was first performed at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2025, where it played to sold-out audiences. Anna D is a Dublin-based spoken word poet and winner of the All-Ireland Poetry Slam, and those talents are at the heart of this performance.

She performs on a stage framed by two large video screens, positioned on either side, while a series of images is projected onto the back wall. At the rear of the stage hangs a clothesline draped with various items of women’s clothing. As the audience enters, Anna D stands motionless with her back to them, perched on impossibly high heels and dressed in a glittering outfit, seemingly ready for a night on the town.

The opening sequence unfolds through voiceovers as a rapid montage of images flashes across the screens and back wall. Meanwhile, Anna D quietly transforms herself, shedding her glamorous attire for something far more ordinary. In doing so, she becomes her younger self: a bright, academically gifted child with lofty ambitions, forced to navigate the often unforgiving politics of the schoolyard. Her intelligence and determination allow her to excel, but they come at a cost over which she has little control. The expectations placed upon girls and boys, she argues, are shaped by generations of unquestioned traditions and social conditioning. Against this backdrop, she reflects on her own hopes and ambitions, and on the subtle but relentless ways those inherited expectations reshape them. Her story is inseparable from those of her mother and grandmother, whose own dreams were similarly constrained. Anna D refuses to accept that this cycle should continue.

Throughout the performance, Anna D executes a series of seamless costume changes that become miniature works of theatre in their own right. Each transformation deepens the narrative while showcasing her remarkable stagecraft. Her delivery is direct and uncompromising as she recounts the obstacles she has faced, many of them rooted in the deeply embedded assumptions and expectations that continue to shape women’s lives. She is confident, visceral and defiantly unapologetic. Yet for all its political conviction, Roots in Every Room never loses sight of its theatricality. Anna D is, above all else, a captivating entertainer, balancing humour, vulnerability and righteous anger with impressive ease.

Anna D is an artist with a clear voice and an unwavering sense of purpose. Not everyone will agree with everything she has to say, but there is no denying the conviction, intelligence and artistry with which she says it. Roots in Every Room is an engaging, thought-provoking and highly accomplished piece of theatre, and the warm, enthusiastic response from the audience—men included—suggested they recognised that achievement too.