Dublin Arts Events

Sacred Symphonies

2012-02-02T17:17:00.000Z

Renowned choir Resurgam are presenting a mini festival celebrating the 400th anniversary of the death of the great Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli. Sacred Synphonies explores different aspects and periods of his work in a ‘surround-sound’ format in the spectacular circular space of City Hall, and the choir will be joined by string players from the Irish Baroque Orchestra, the sackbuts and cornetts of the period wind ensemble QuintEssential, and Malcolm Proud on organ. The first concert on Sun 4 Feb focuses on Gabrieli’s early vocal style; Sun 11 includes music from the 1597 Symphoniae Sacrae, with 8 voices and 4 each of string and brass; while the whole shebang comes together on Sun 18 for large-scale works from the Symphoniae Sacrae liber secundus of 1615 and the 33 part Magnificat. www.resurgam.ie

Sundays@ Noon

2012-02-02T16:49:00.004Z

Where else would you be of a Sunday@ Noon but at the Hugh Lane Gallery for some fab free music. Sun 5 Feb sees violinist Maria Ryan team up with Una Hunt on piano for a fascinating programme of Mozart’s Violin Sonata K301, Arvo Part’s Fratres and Szymanovski’s Violin Sonata Op 9. On Sun 12 the Ensemble Blumina, a trio of oboe, piano and bassoon, play works by Jean Francaix, Andre Previn and Francis Poulenc. Sun 19 sees the start of a major new series, with pianists Fionnuala Moynihan and Peter Tuite performing the Complete Piano Sonatas of Haydn in a series of 12 recitals over the next 2 years. The first concert features Sonatas in E flat major, C minor, C major and E minor. On Sun 26 there's music by Vivaldi and Handel with soprano Deirdre Moynihan, Laoise O'Brien on recorders, Kate Hearne on cello and David Adams on harpsichord. Afterwards you can head up to the Unitarian Church on Stephens Green for another free concert (bucket collection for the organ restoration fund) featuring young baritone Benjamin Russell and pianist David O'Shea. www.hughlane.ie

RTE Horizons

2012-01-27T12:22:00.002Z

Missed the boat a bit on the RTE Horizons series – free contemporary music concerts at the NCH featuring the RTE NSO; there was some great stuff including Kevin Volans and Ronan Guilfoyle, but there’s still time to catch the final concert next Tue (1.05pm) when the focus is on Garrett Sholdice. World premieres of two new works composed especially for this concert by Sholdice (Fall and Disappear) and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly, arrangements by Sholdice of the Bach chorale Ach wie nichtig, ach wie flüchtig for string orchestra, brass ensemble and full orchestra, and Feldman’s Madame Press Died Last Week At Ninety. And you can hear the Composer in Conversation at 12.30pm www.rte.ie/nationalsymphonyorchestra

Music

2012-01-19T13:32:00.002Z

Another New Year, another New Year’s Resolution: I will update my blog at least once a week; I will update my blog at least once a week… A bit late I know but life and other mysteries have a habit of intervening. In the meantime, some nice music happening around the place. The Irish Composers Collective presents new works for soprano and viola at the NCH’s John Field Room tonight (Thur 19 Jan), including a jazz-inspired waltz (Shades of Meaning), a musical plea for ‘Organ Donation’, settings of Dickinson and Yeats, and a piece of aural hallucination. At the same venue on 31 Jan pianist and ICC member David Bremner and soprano Elizabeth Hilliard perform Garett Sholdice's Three Lieder after Franz Schubert, also written especially for the duo, as well as Bremner's own The bright kids (logic ballad), Webern's Vier Lieder and Schubert's from Schwangesang.

Renowned clarinettist Michael Collins celebrates his 50^th birthday in style with a lovely concert at St Patrick’s Church in Dalkey on Tue 24 Jan. Presented by the indefatigable John Ruddock of the AML, it features the magnificent Vogler Quartet playing Beethoven’s Quartet in A minor op 132 and, with Collins, the Brahms Clarinet Quintet.

The Government Inspector

2011-12-16T14:39:00.000Z

review Abbey Theatre

It must have seemed like a great idea: take Gogol’s snappy satire on the petty corruption of small town officials in Czarist Russia, transpose it to an Irish idiom and let the resonances and parallels role. In the capable hands of the observant and ever-witty Roddy Doyle and director Jimmy Fay, a man with proven comic sensibilities, what could possibly go wrong? Well, quite a lot actually – the most basic problem being that for much of the time it just isn’t funny enough. There are some real gems in there – the scene where the mistaken ‘Government Inspector’, invited to sup at the mayor’s house, is by turn slobbered over by a bevy of fawning sycophants and a lusty and highly competitive mother and daughter combo, is a sheer delight – but they only serve to highlight the lack of spark elsewhere. An over-reliance on slapstick mightn’t be to everyone’s taste, but if it’s done well it can really work; here, alas, it’s just a bit tedious.

Despite the large cast it’s all a tad underwhelming, and even some of the old reliables aren’t always up to scratch – Don Wycherley’s Mayor, for example, is all shouts and growls, although Marion O’Dwyer and Liz Fitzgibbon as his wife and daughter are a much better match. Conor Murphy’s complicated revolving set works best when the bare bones are exposed – stairs going nowhere and doors opening into nowhere else, but what’s with all the plastic sacks? As for the Irishness, a fair few brown envelopes work their way into the equation, but we’re still dealing with a confusing profusion of Ivanoviches and Alexandroviches along with a mishmash of costumes – why not go the whole hog and give us a proper bit of paddywhackery. All in all, the proverbial curate’s egg, good in parts.

Sundays@ Noon & Saturday@ Dublin Castle

2011-11-29T22:07:00.001Z

Coming up at the Hugh Lane Gallery, the widely-acclaimed ConTempo String Quartet celebrate Romanian National Day on Sun 4 Dec as part of the free Sundays @ Noon series. They play Mozart’s ‘Hunt’ Quartet, Bartok’s Six Romanian Dances and are joined by clarinetist Claudio Mansutti for Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. On Sun 11 Ensemble Avalon play Beethoven’s Violin Sonata no 5 in F major and Piano Trio in C minor. www.hughlane.ie

And on Sat 3 Dec you can catch Ukrainian wunderpianist Alexei Gorlatch, winner of the 2009 Dublin International Piano Competition among many other prizes, in a Music Network recital at Dublin Castle. He plays Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms and Bill Whelan’s ‘The Currach’. www.musicnetwork.ie

The Making of ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore

2011-11-29T22:06:00.001Z

Siren Productions have come up with a double whammy of sorts with their latest show, The Making of ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore which previews at Project’s Space Upstairs from Thur 1 Dec and opens on Tue 6. In a clever contemporary take on John Ford’s darkly comic Jacobean masterpiece ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, this tumultuous tale unfolds as a film director assembles a cast and crew to film the play. It’s a seductive case of life imitating art as a parallel world of intrigue and desire, lust and obsession begins to inhabit the set, with the boundaries of these two worlds becoming increasingly blurred as reality, fantasy, life and art collide with disastrous results. Combining live theatre and pre-filmed scenes, the always fascinating Selina Cartmell directs two top notch casts: on stage Louis Lovett, Kate Stanley Brennan, Cathy Belton, Phelim Drew and Barbara Brennan; and on film Simon Delaney, Tom Hickey, John Kavanagh, Lorcan Cranitch and Paul Reid. Music is by Conor Linehan, set by Sabine Dargent and costumes by Gabby Rooney. www.projectartscentre.ie

The Government Inspector

2011-11-29T22:05:00.000Z

Tis almost the season to be jolly, and amid all the glitz and glitter the Abbey has come up with a Christmas show with a difference, a new version of Gogol’s The Government Inspector by the ever-ebullient Roddy Doyle, which opens tomorrow Wed 30 Nov. This is Doyle’s second time taking on a classic, his version of Synge’s Playboy, written with Bisi Adigun, was a real treat, and this new show sees director Jimmy Fay back at the helm. Casting a satirical eye over endemic bureaucracy and corruption, Gogol’s comedy has a delicious relevance that Doyle will no doubt exploit to the hilt – brown envelopes and underhand bribes abound as a befuddled group of anxious small town dignitaries await the arrival of the eponymous inspector but, as in all the best comedies, nothing is as it seems. A terrific cast is headed up by Don Wycherley, Marion O’Dwyer, Gary Cooke, Mark Doherty, Joe Hanley and Rory Nolan, with lighting by Kevin Tracy, set by Conor Murphy, costumes by Catherine Fay, music by Denis Clohessy and choreography by Liz Roche. Just the thing to ward off those budget blues. www.abbeytheatre.ie

Concorde & Ulysses

2011-10-27T14:54:00.002+01:00

Concorde contemporary music ensemble celebrate their 35th birthday with Up Close with Music, a series of six free afternoon concerts in gallery spaces including the Rubicon Gallery, the Contemporary Music Centre and the Gallery of Photography. Each concert will feature a commissioned composer with a new work, as well as highlighting their extensive repertoire and new compositions from both Irish and international composers, including Stephen Gardner, Grainne Mulvey, Judith Ring, Ed Bennett, Korean composer Si-Hyun Yi and Slovenian composer Nina Senk. The series will pay tribute to the late James Wilson and will also focus on the music of Elliot Carter. The first two concerts are at the Rubicon Gallery on Sun 13 and Sun 27 Nov, featuring commissioned works from Dave Flynn and Rhona Clarke respectively. www.rubicongallery.ie

For more free music, head up to the Dublin Unitarian Church on Stephens Green at 3pm on Sun 13 for the final concert in their Organ Restoration Fund series. Fergal Caulfield conducts the Ulysses Chamber Choir in a programme of Hungarian-themed music including Brahms’ Ziegunerlieder and Listz’s Missa Choralis. There will be a post-concert bucket collection towards the cost of restoring the beautiful JW Walker Organ, built 100 years ago this year. www.dublinunitarianchurch.org

String Machine

2011-10-23T22:45:00.003+01:00

Now this sounds fascinating: String Machine 2 at Project on Fri 28 Oct – and it’s Free! Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Goethe-Institut Ireland, the concert is the result of an ongoing collaboration between Irish and German traditional and electronic artists, Donal Lunny, Stephan Mathieu, Leopold Hurt and David Donohoe & Eamonn Doyle. New recorded works for stringed instruments were commissioned from Donal Lunny (bouzouki) and Leopold Hurt (zither) which were then used as the sole source material for digital recompositions by Stephan Mathieu and David Donohoe & Eamonn Doyle, with all the sounds being generated exclusively from the bouzouki and zither using various digital processes. That process forms the basis for this live improvised performance featuring collaborations between Lunny and Mathieu and between Hurt and Donohoe & Doyle. The concert will also feature solo performances from each of the artists, and a CD featuring the four commissioned works will be given free on admission. Cool or what! www.projectartscentre.ie

Sundays@ Noon

2011-10-23T22:35:00.000+01:00

Coming up at the Hugh Lane on Sun Oct 30, renowned harpsichordist Malcolm Proud performs JS Bach’s 6 Partitas for Harpsichord over 3 concerts, with introductions from musicologist David Ledbetter. First off is Partita No1 in B flat Major and No 2 in C minor, you can hear No 3 in A minor and No 4 in D Major on Sun 27 Nov, with the final concert featuring No 5 in G Major and No 6 in E minor on Sun 18 Dec. And for something completely different, Sun 6 Nov sees the world premiere of Benjamin Dwyer’s Umbilical, the story of Oedipus, Jocasta and Laius in ten musical scenes for amplified baroque violin, double bass, harpsichord and tape, featuring Maya Homburger, Barry Guy and David Adams. www.hughlane.ie

Spooky

2011-10-23T22:22:00.001+01:00

Plenty of spooky stuff around, given the time of year, with Bewleys Café Theatre taking over the Unitarian Church for a special evening staging of the very successful Poe Show on Fri 4 and Sat 5 Nov. Devised and directed by Michael James Ford with music by Trevor Knight, this theatrical celebration of the work of Edgar Allan Poe includes two of his best-known stories, The Tell-Tale Heart, a terrifying exploration of murder and guilt, and The Cask of Amontillado, a pitch-black comedy of revenge. Meanwhile if you like a spot of gothic horror with your lunch, check out McAdam’s Torment, a new play by Audrey Devereux loosely based on the legend of notorious Scottish bandit chief Sawney Beane. Opens at Bewleys on Halloween itself. www.bewleyscafetheatre.com And not to be outdone in the realm of spookiness, dark nights and haunting stories from the ancient festival of Samhain are promised at the National Leprechaun Museum, on the site of an ancient city morgue and beside a disturbed graveyard… Interactive adult-only performances from Thur 27 Oct. www.leprechaunmuseum.ie

Music in the Library

2011-10-23T20:34:00.001+01:00

The CMC have teamed up with the RIAM for series of free concerts in Dublin City Libraries between 26 Oct and 2 Nov. Celebrating Dublin’s UNESCO City of Literature status, Musical Tales features works by Irish composers Rachel Holstead, Michael Holohan, Kevin O’Connell, Frank Corcoran, John Buckley and Siobhan Cleary, who have variously found inspiration in Old Irish literature as well as the writers Seamus Heaney, Paul Durcan and Oscar Wilde. Benjamin Dwyer will introduce the concerts which feature the Milesian Quartet and well-known mezzo Imelda Drumm. Catch them at the Ilac Library at lunchtime on Mon 24, Drumcondra at 6.30 on Tues 25 Oct, Rathmines at lunchtime on Wed 27 and Walkinstown at 7pm on Wed 2 Nov. www.cmc.ie

Darklight Festival

2011-10-03T20:11:00.001+01:00

This year’s Darklight festival gets back to the roots in a celebration of the spirit of grassroots filmmaking. Taking place at The Factory @ Grand Canal Dock from Thur 20 to Sat 22 Oct, there’s DIY SFX workshops and a screening of Evan Glodell’s acclaimed film Bellflower, as well as Jeanie Finlay’s Sound it Out, a feature doc about the last surviving record shop in Teesside. Other documentaries include Blood in the Mobile, showing the chilling connection between our phones and the civil war in the Congo, while We Are Poets follows 6 teenage poets from Leeds Young Authors as they prepare to represent the UK at Brave New Voices, the prestigious poetry slam in Washington DC. Irish artist Jesse Jones is the Artist in Focus; and there’s a late screening of the delightful-sounding Everything Is Terrible featuring seven furry, lovable internet monsters who live in a cave full of VCRS and take forgotten VHS tapes to edit them down into easily digestible viral videos. www.darklight.ie

Open House

2011-10-03T20:09:00.002+01:00

Another chance to peep behind closed doors, when the sixth Open House weekend takes over the city. Organised by the Irish Architecture Foundation and running from Fri 7 to Sun 9, there are over 120 building visits, tours and events. Among the more unusual are boat trips off Dun Laoghaire and the Dublin Docklands, Luas trips to explore the North Docklands and New Frontiers of the Green Line, Walking tours discussing the Destruction of Dublin, the potential of NAMA properties and the Architecture of Dublin Contemporary. Some events and visits are pre-book only, but many more are open to all on a first-come basis, including the iconic Liberty Hall, but be prepared to queue. Check it all out @ www.architecturefoundation.ie/openhouse

Sundays@ Noon

2011-10-03T20:06:00.004+01:00

Lovers of Brass will be heading in their droves to the Hugh Lane on Sun 9 (12 noon, admission free) for an Introduction to Brass courtesy of Vox Merus. featuring Simon Menin and Andrea Vonk on trumpets, Alex Kidston on tuba, the NSO’s Cormac O hAodain on horn and the RTECO’s Steve Mathieson on trombone. It’s a lovely programme, paying gentle (if that’s a word you can use around brass) homage to two TCD luminaries, the late Joe Groocock and Brian Boydell, with the former’s Quintet for Brass and the latter’s Five Blows for Brass Quintet, both written in 1984. Also on the programme, Daniel Barkley’s up to the minute Five Run Away Together and Malcolm Arnolds 1961 Quintet for Brass. On Sun 16 you can hear contemporary music from Ireland and Slovenia featuring Joze Kotar on clarinet and Luca Ferrini on piano. www.hughlane.ie

RTE National Symphony Orchestra

2011-10-03T20:01:00.001+01:00

Some really good concerts coming up at the NCH from the RTE National Symphony Orchestra. On Fri 7 Oct Lithuanian violinist/violist Julian Rachlin, who started his concert career at the tender age of ten, doubles (or should that be trebles) up as conductor in Hindemith’s Trauermusik for viola and strings and Beethoven’s wonderful Violin Concerto, along with Mozart’s Symphony No 35, the Haffner. The NSO step off-schedule on Tue 11 with a 6.30pm concert featuring Bruch’s dramatic Violin Concerto, with the brilliant Catherine Leonard as soloist, and Mahler’s monumental Tragic Symphony No 6. Carl Orff’s ever-popular Carmina Burana is the main focus on Fri 14, with Gerhard Markson conducting the RTE Philharmonic Choir and Cor na nOg, but there’s also the chance to hear Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Winds, with Hugh Tinney on the piano. NSO principal clarinettist John Finucane takes up the baton on Fri 21 for music from the Napoleonic era including Beethoven’s Wellington’s Victory and Symphony No 7, and he’s also the soloist in Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No 1. Look out too for RTE Big Music Week, of which more anon. www.rte.ie

Dublin Theatre Festival Reviews

2011-10-01T13:22:00.010+01:00

Donka: A Letter to Chekhov

Gaiety, til Sun 2 Oct

Strong visuals and a quite entertaining playfulness inform this circus-like show, but despite its impressive credentials it never really adds up to a satisfying whole. Commissioned for the opening of the 2010 Chekhov International Theatre Festival and created by Cirque du Soleil’s Daniele Finzi Pasca, at times it feels a bit Cirque-lite, and the links to Chekhov seem pretty tenuous – girls on swings in pretty white dresses, some messing about with beards and fishing lines, and a bit of slapstick doctoring with some gratuitous contortionism thrown in; possibly a Chekhov-imbued Russian audience would get more out of it. Nevertheless there’s quite a few enjoyable set pieces, including some interesting shadow play, with silhouettes looming large in an almost Soviet display, juggling and gyroscoping, a dream-like ice-shattering dance sequence and a very funny horizontal trapeze-act.

Peer Gynt O’Reilly Theatre, til Sun 16 Oct

Who would have thought that rhyming couplets could be so much fun? Or that the bare space of the O’Reilly Theatre could be transformed into such Gate-like elegance? John Comiskey and Alan Farquharson’s opulent set offers a feast for the eyes, all faded Victoriana and bay-windowed grandeur, with a curved central space that conceals and occasionally reveals an excellent live band. Tarab provide a compelling musical backdrop to the unfolding saga of the elusive Peer Gynt, fantasist extraordinaire. Arthur Riordan’s clever new version, directed with gusto by Lynne Parker, has a definite Irish twist to it, with its lilting tunes, rhymes and raps, and while the pace does flag a wee bit in the second half, it’s always going to be hard to match the sheer exuberance of that first act, its wild adventures, flights of fancy and tales of derring-do, of mountain goats and elopements, the devoted mammy, and a delicious trio of troll princesses. A terrific ensemble cast and a bravura performance from Rory Nolan as our beleaguered hero.

Rian, Gaiety, til Sat 8 Oct

Mention the words ‘traditional Irish music’ and ‘dance’ in the same sentence, and inevitably the spectre of Riverdance comes to mind, with its streamlined perfection and glitzy costumes, a remnant of the good old bad old days. But this earthy new show from choreographer Michael Keegan Dolan and musician/composer Liam O Maonlai soon dispels any such notions. Mind you, the start doesn’t look too promising. The company of musicians and dancers are ranged in a semicircle at the back of the stage, with O Maonlai at the centre in what seems like a very formal arrangement, but things gradually take off until the stage is full of leppin’ and boundin’, sweeping and swooping, the way you might dance in the kitchen (if you were good enough). There’s a touch of the comely maidens, in their gunas and ankle socks, with the fellas in tweed suits and braces, but it’s nicely juxtaposed by an ethnically diverse cast and there’s no restraint here - at times it almost feels like a seisuin. Some of the dance moves seem a tad over-exposed, but there other moments that take your breath away – the mischievous teasing of the solo box player, the slow-mo reaction as the uilleann piper casts a spell, or the beautiful pas de deux, a fascinating variation on the slow set. The music is of course top class, with O Maonlai himself particularly busy on piano, harp, bodhran, tin whistle and vocals, and although his voice is in fine fettle, for me the show was stolen by a most beautiful rendition of Lough Erin Shore from Eithne Ni Cathain. As the last notes faded away you could literally hear a pin drop. Riverdance is well and truly banished.

Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival

2011-09-22T17:29:00.001+01:00

Quite a smorgasbord of theatrical experiences at this year’s Theatre Festival, from the wild intoxication of contemporary circus and flamboyant extravaganza, to the haunting introspection of lost boys and forgotten mothers; from the playful exploration of myths and fairytales to the rigorous interrogation of The Radical Mind or the powerful honesty of the one-woman show. It might be a cliché, but Loughlin Deegan’s final year as DTF director has definitely produced a bit of something for everyone, as personified in the opening show DONKA, a letter to Chekhov (Gaiety), originally commissioned for the opening of the 2010 Chekhov International Theatre Festival. Aerial acrobatics, multi-media illusion and circus magic from leading director (and Cirque du Soleil veteran) Daniele Finzi Pasca, inspired by the plays and diaries of Anton Chekhov, surreal escapism guaranteed!

Rough Magic reunite with Improbable Frequency author Arthur Riordan for a playful re-imagining of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt (O’Reilly Theatre), the delusional boy who never grew up. Funny, fast-paced and fantastical, it’s directed by Lynn Parker and features live music from Francesco Turrisi’s Tarab.

Cornwall-based Kneehigh, purveyors of dark yet magical fairy tales for the past 30 years, make their first visit to Dublin with the exhilarating The Wild Bride (Gaiety), an epic and irreverent romance that follows the fortunes of young woman whose witless father accidentally sells her to the devil.

There’s world premieres a-plenty in this year’s festival; DTF and Landmark Productions have joined forces for a new play by celebrated writer Colm Toibin. Testament (Project), directed by Garry Hynes and featuring the outstanding Marie Mullen, gives provocative voice to a woman forced to carry a heavy burden through tumultuous times, asking big questions about the who, what and why of our beliefs.

In another powerful one-woman show, Toneelgroep Amsterdam present Jean Cocteau’s La Voix Humaine (Beckett Theatre) featuring Halina Reijn in a tour de force performance. Directed by the world renowned Ivo van Hove, this seminal story of abandonment and heartbreak centres on a desperate woman’s last phonecall to an ex-lover.

And one man (Omphile Moluis) tells the true story of a forgotten South African township in the award-winning Itsoseng (Axis), as the hope of a new post-apartheid life is crushed by the realities of a corrupt and incompetent system.

The fab Fabulous Beast are back with an ambitious new show that aims to explore the tension and harmony between Irish traditional music and contemporary dance. Rian (Gaiety) brings together choreographer Michael Keegan Dolan, trad fave Liam O Maonlai and a company of musicians and dancers in response to O Maonlai’s album of the same name, itself inspired by the seminal recording O Riada sa Gaiety.

At the Abbey, a new production of the O’Casey classic Juno and the Paycock in a first ever co-production with UK’s National Theatre. Risteard Cooper, Sinead Cusack and Ciran Hinds head an impressive cast in this epic tale of survival and vengeance, in which the ambitions of the lowly Boyle family are set against the political and social events of the War of Independence. The NT’s Howard Davies directs with design by the excellent Bob Crowley.

Chekhov turns up again in 16 Possible Glimpses (Peacock), a new play by Marina Carr examining the life and death of the elusive genius. Visuals, words and music collide in a series of dialogues and domestic scenes around the master storyteller, playwright, doctor, lover, brother, son. Wayne Jordan directs.

Artistic extravagance from Belgium’s Les ballets C de la B (2006’s vsprs) in Gardenia (Gaiety) a flamboyant and defiant expression of the indomitable human spirit featuring seven ageing transvestites and transsexuals. A collaboration between celebrated musical director Frank Van Laecke and leading choreographer Alain Platel.

At the Gate, Hugo Hamilton’s brilliant memoir The Speckled People is adapted by the author and directed by Patrick Mason. Hamilton’s story of his constrained childhood in 1950’s Dublin, the product of a fanatical Gaelgoiri father and a gentle German mother is both deeply personal and powerfully resonant.

Brokentalkers follow up 2009’s Silver Stars with The Blue Boy, dealing with the experiences of men and women who spent their childhood incarcerated in Catholic institutions. Live performance, recorded interview, multi-media and film, written by Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan, with choreography by DV8’s Eddie Kay and music by Sean Millar.

Siren Productions take over the James Joyce House for The Lulu House, an immersive and intoxicating exploration of the elusive, seductive Lulu, inspired by the silent movie Pandora’s Box and the 19th century Lulu plays, a mix of performance, musical, installation and film featuring Lorcan Cranitch and Camille O’Sullivan.

Cabaret macabre gets another wicked twist from UK company 1927 in a show that mixes elements of Fritz Lang, Charles Dickens and Tim Burton. Synchronising live music and performance with film and animation The Animals and Children Took to the Street (Project) explores the seedy underbelly of the Bayou, as Agnes Eaves and her daughter arrive late one night amid the cockroaches, crime and corruption.

The Radical Mind celebrates the Goethe-Institut’s 50th anniversary in Ireland with a season focusing on leading experimenters and innovators, presenting 3 independent contemporary works from Germany. She She Pop & Their Fathers (Beckett Theatre) draws on King Lear to show the painful realities of aging and parenthood, as the performers expose their personal grievances alongside their real-life fathers. In their ongoing exploration of the complexities and absurdities of contemporary culture, Gob Squad use tea, cake and electric guitars to reach out to the masses and incite them to rise up in Revolution Now! (Beckett) The clichés surrounding Othello and Desdemona gradually give way to a tough confrontation between two contrasting cultures fuelled by extreme emotions, prejudices and misunderstandings in the two-hander Othello c’est qui (Smock Alley)

Behind Closed Doors is a series of intimate theatre experiences exploring often forgotten facets of Irish society. Louise Lowe’s Laundry takes a tiny audience to a former Magdalen Laundry in the north inner city. In Mark O’Halloran’s Trade a vulnerable young rent boy sits with a middle-aged client in a rundown B&B. Corcoadorca’s Request Programme featuring the brilliant Eileen Walshe in a wordless performance, brings us into the private world of a woman whose ultimate decision will change everything.

Reviewed gives you a chance to catch the ones that got away: The Performance Corporation’s carnivalesque satire Slattery’s Sago Saga; Louise Lowe’s World’s End Lane, an exploration of the notorious Monto district; the personal love story of Amy Conroy’s I heart Alice heart I; Theatreclub’s Heroin, an unsettling look at those that society left behind; and Gavin Kostick’s Fight Night, charting the gripping comeback of failed amateur boxer Dan Coyle.

And not forgetting the Family Season, with shows from Denmark and Belgium; In Development (free but booking essential); Project Brand New at the Hendron Building; Panel Discussions and more.

www.dublintheatrefestival.com

If Music Be

2011-09-21T09:40:00.004+01:00

Some fab music coming up over the next few days, kicking off at the NCH this evening (Wed 21) with the fascinating and highly dramatic pianist Rolf Hind, a brilliant exponent of contemporary music. The opening concert in the NewSoundWorld series, the two-piano programme mixes John Cage with eastern influences including Takemitsu and Tan Dun. www.nch.ie

Lots of stuff on Culture Night (Fri 23). At the NCH you can hear RTE Cor a nOg at 7pm, prior to the main NSO concert, and for a mere fiver, the RTE Vanbrugh Quartet at 10.15pm playing Mozart, Arvo Part and Donnacha Dennehy. The Contemporary Music Centre opens its doors til 10pm for a live Music and Installation Programme with the Spatial Music Collective, including Jonathan Nangle’s Trip the Light Fantastic, Brtian Bridges’ Collapsing Old Buildings, and works for harp and electronics by Linda Buckley and Enda Bates. www.culturenight.ie

The CMC’s new music::new Ireland salon series begins on Wed 28 at the NCH’s Kevin Barry Room with singer Tine Verbeke and cellist Martin Johnson (of Concorde) in a programme that includes James Wilson and Elaine Agnew. www.cmc.ie

Sundays at Noon at the Hugh Lane features upcoming young classical guitarist Pavlos Kanellakis on Sun 25 playing de Falla, Villa Lobos, Buckley and de Bromhead. On Sun 2 Oct the National Chamber Choir sing Bach, Brahms, Arnold Bax, Siobhan Cleary and Tarik O’Regan. www.hughlane.ie

Absolut Fringe

2011-09-19T19:53:00.005+01:00

And so to the Fringe. What delights await us in Week Two?

Man of Valour has been packing them in at the Beckett, a one-man action movie created by The Corn Exchange's Michael West & Annie Ryan and Paul Reid (of Raw fame), the latter delivering a virtuosic performance as an office drone with a hyperactive fantasy gland. From Oz comes another one-man-er, the multi award-winning The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer a feel-good epic bout enduring love and the end of the world that mixes animation, mime, puppetry, projections and live music. (Project)

Dance at Project includes A Lost Opera, a new dance work from celebrated choreographer Deborah Hay directed by Jason Byrne and featuring Ella Clarke, Cindy Cummings and Julie Lockett. Make, I Mean brings together John Scott's IMDT and New York's Adrienne Truscott for a multi-generational -cultural and -discipline piece.

Abie Philbin Bowman brings his edgy satire to the Lir with a piece celebrating the man of the moment, Pope Benedict: Bond Villain. David O'Doherty turns bankrupt explorer in Rory Sheridan's Tales of the Antarctica - sold out at the time of writing but definitely worth queueing for returns. (Smock Alley) For a pocket musical peek at Dublin city 2011, check out Pocket Music at Bewleys, part of Fishamble's Show in a Bag.

In Gis a Shot of your Bongos Mister drummer Brian Fleming creates an aural biographical journey from Fatima Mansions to the shanty towns of West Africa. What Are Poets For? (in a destitute time) sees performance artist Denis Buckley draw parallels between the disenfranchised London Irish and the demoralised new Hibernia. (both at City Arts)

A timeless location on Eustace St heaps on the atmosphere in Hand Me Down the Moon, an immersive theatrical experience created by the formidable trio of Bairbre Ni Chaoimh, Aideen Barry and Louise Lowe, as a young space-obsessed girl embarks on her quest to defy gravity and journey to the stars.

PS a couple of cool freebies: there's a bit of a darnathon at the Fringe box office (Filmbase) over the next few days with Furturemenders' The Sock Exchange. Learn how to darn with love. And prepare to be uplifted at Christ Church Cathedral on Sat 24 @5pm by the swirling choral/choreographical spirituality of Tom Lane's experimental evensong Corokinesis.

www.fringefest.com

September

2011-09-18T18:03:00.002+01:00

Finally! Back on dry land and what a cool month September turns out to be. You can scarcely move without colliding with a bit of culture. First there’s the fab Fringe Festival aka Absolut Fringe, hurtling towards its second week with some tantalising goodies in store and a new festival club on uber-hip Parnell Square East. Long live the northside! And even better is the news that Macnas’s opening night show at Collins Barracks, cancelled because of adverse weather conditions, has been rescheduled for the Fringe’s closing night on Sun 25. Yippee!!! Get your tickets at the Fringe box office on Curved St. Dublin Contemporary is out and about with over 90 Irish and international artists on show at Earlsfort Terrace and various galleries. At 15 quid a ticket it might seem a bit pricey but there’s a lot of stuff to see, and for the final hour you can get an Art Bite for a fiver. And if you’re lucky you might get to take part in a special Roadworks walking tour as part of Culture Night on Fri 23. Musicwise, there’s interesting concerts from NewSoundWorlds on Wed 21 and Sundays@Noon on Sun 25, the RTE NSO are back in situ at the NCH, with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Ander Hillborg’s sinuous Clarinet Concerto on Fri 23. And then to cap it all, the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival kicks off on Thur 29 for a two week splurge. Happy hunting, culture vultures!

Brad Mehldau

2011-09-05T08:45:00.001+01:00

Well whadya know – you go away for a couple of weeks and before you know it it’s September and those grey clouds you were fleeing suddenly turn out to have some very inviting silver linings. Shows from Note Productions includes the amazing jazz pianist Brad Mehldau in a solo show at the NCH on Wed 14, one man and a piano conjuring up a density and richness of sound that morphs from original compositions to his very idiosyncratic take on genre-bending tunes, from My Favourite Things to Kurt Cobain’s Lithium on his latest live album. Not to be missed. Note are also presenting Iarla O Lionaird at the Sugar Club on Fri 16 as part of launch tour for his latest album Foxlight. www.note.ie

Summer in the Symphony

2011-06-25T17:51:00.000+01:00

The RTE National Symphony Orchestra get busy for the summer with Tue lunchtime and Fri evening concerts at the NCH. Lunchtime fare includes a nice mix of Berlioz, Faure, Saint-Saens and a taste of a Haydn Cello Concerto on Tue 28, all under the baton of Principal Conductor Alan Buribayev. Strauss’s Blue Danube and Tchaikvosky’s Swan Lake share the stage with bluegrass fiddle music on 5 July. There’s Ravel and Bizet on Tue 12; Balfe, Butterworth and Bernstein on Tue 19 with soprano Katy Kelly; and Weber’s Bassoon Concerto on Tue 26. On Fri 1 July there’s a rare opportunity to hear Stanford’s 2nd Piano Concerto with soloist Finghin Collins, along with Tchaikovsky’s dramatic 5th Symphony. Other evening concerts include Operatic Favourites with South African soprano Sarah-Jane Brandon on Fri 8; the Great American Songbook on Fri 15; lyric fm’s Listeners Favourites on Fri 22; and the slightly dubious Symphonic Rock on Fri 29.

www.rte.ie/nationalsymphonyorchestra

Translations

2011-06-25T17:48:00.001+01:00

What with Molly Sweeney at the Gate and Translations currently previewing at the Abbey, eminent playwright Brian Friel is once again centre stage in Dublin. Set in 1833, as the British Army embark on a mapping project of rural Donegal, Translations is definitely one of my favourite Friel plays. It has it all – history, politics, intellect, cross-cultural clashes, language and identity, a delightful love story, a real sense of fun, and a sinister undercurrent that will inevitably lead to tragedy. Conall Morrison directs a cast that includes Denis Conway, Barry Ward, Janice Byrne, Tim Delap, Michael James Ford, Donal O’Kelly, Aoife McMahon, Janet Moran, Aaron Monaghan and Rory Nolan. Opens Wed 29June. www.abbeytheatre.ie

Irish Composers Collective

2011-06-18T11:06:00.006+01:00

Something tasty from the Irish Composers Collective: Soprano Elizabeth Hilliard and David Bremner give a concert for Voice and Piano at the NCH next Wed 22 June of previously unperformed works by member composers, including Glen Austin, David Bremner, Peter Moran, Richard Gill, Massimo Davi ('Fairytale for female voice and resonant piano') and Ryan Molloy. Coming up, an AudioVisual Concert on 26 July features collaborations between five composers and five visual/video artists, and in August the ICC present their first Laptop Ensemble. www.irishcomposerscollective.com www.nch.ie

And over at the Contemporary Music Centre at 6pm you can catch the launch of Ed Bennett's new CD My Broken Machines, featuring a live performance by Paul Roe. www.cmc.ie

Short & Sweet

2011-06-06T16:59:00.008+01:00

Over the past while I’ve come to realise that despite my best intentions, life has a habit of intervening in my blogging schedule, so for the next few months I’m going to keep things short and sweet – basic info and a link. But remember, if it’s on the blog it’s worth checking out.So here goes:

Sundays@ Noon at the Hugh Lane Gallery is a definite must for any city dweller. Free music in a fab gallery, what more could you want? On Sun 19 you can hear pianist Finghin Collins, currently associate artist with the NSO, playing Beethoven and Debussy, and on Sun 26 contemporary music group Concorde team up with acclaimed violist Garth Knox for The Viola: A Wild Beast Unleashed, 5 new compositions by Irish composers inspired by the afore-mentioned Knox. www.hughlane.ie

And in the same venue for a small fee, on Sat 18 @3pm you can here the National Chamber Choir under the baton of the brilliant Paul Hillier singing music by Brahms and his early music influences including the likes of Gabrieli and Palestrina. www.nationalchamberchoir.com

A new cross-arts project Movement of Sound is at the Backloft on June 19, a collaboration between Karen Power (composer / live electronics), Mary Nunan (dancer and choreographer), Deirdre O’Leary (clarinet/ bass clarinet) and Kate Ellis (cello), featuring Irish premiers by international composers; Saariaho, Tiensuu and Hyla. And speaking of the Backloft, there’s a free concert on Fri 10 @7pm featuring RawClassico aka soprano Frances Marshall and classical guitarist John Feeley, a combination of Italian arias and Celtic repertoire, all arranged by Feeley.

www.thebackloft.blogspot.com

Some good stuff coming up at Art Polonia’s Centre for Creative Practice, where you can indulge in everything from jazz, flamenco, electro-acoustic, experimental music performance, folk music, storytelling, documentaries and a German movie night. Check out their website @ www.artpolonia.org

Popular French-based pianist Ivan Ilic is back again at the NCH’s John Field Room for a lunchtime recital on Fri 24 June, including his own arrangements of French songs by Debussy, Fauré, and Ernest Chausson, as well as two rarely-heard works from 1930 by Ravel and Godowsky. www.nch.ie

Next show into the Gate Theatre is Brian Friel’s thought-provoking exploration of personal identity Molly Sweeney, which had its premiere there some 15 years ago. Previewing from Thur 23 and opening on Tue 28 June, this new production is directed by Patrick Mason and features Dawn Bradfield, Michael Byrne and Peter Hanly. www.gatetheatre.ie

At Project til Sat 18 June, Loose Canon return to their Shakespearian roots with their take on A Midsummer Night's Dream? (note that question mark). As they so eloquently put it, “Is it about fairies and pixies and the course of true love not running smoothly? Or is it about getting f*cked off your face – so f*cked off your face that you end up f*cking a donkey?” Sounds like some party. www.projectartscentre.ie

Horizons at the NCH

2011-05-08T13:56:00.001+01:00

Two concerts in the RTE NSO’s free lunchtime Horizons series at the NCH, focusing on contemporary Irish composers: on Tue 10 May Belfast composer Philip Hammond celebrates his 60th birthday with a programme that includes ...the starry dynamo in the machinery of night… composed in 2001 for President Clinton’s Honorary Doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast, and his Concertino for Flute and Strings, with NSO principal flute Catriona Ryan. It’s the turn of Jerome de Bromhead on Tue 17, when his first Violin Concerto gets its world premiere, with NSO leader Alan Smale as soloist. www.nch.ie www.rte.ie/nationalsymphonyorchestra

12 Points!

2011-04-28T15:27:00.002+01:00

So what’s all this Douze Points stuff? Thankfully, it’s not the Eurovision but a visionary snapshot of the best of contemporary Euorpean jazz. Originally the Dublin-based baby of the Improvised Music Company, it’s now become something of a Pan-European festival, heading out for new adventures every second year. Luckily, 2011 is a homecoming years, so between Wed 4 and Sat 7 May you can sample a vibrant cross-section of jazz in all its glorious diversity. Project Arts Centre is the venue, with 3 bands each night from 7pm. The opening night kicks off with Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and her Quintet, followed by some gritty improv with Amsterdam’s The Ambush Party and piano magic from London-based trio Phronesis. Thursday features the Lisbeth Quartett from Berlin headed up by impressive young saxophonist Charlotte Greve, innovative Parisian trio Metal-o-phone and Rome’s hard-grooving Neko quartet. Stockholm gets a look in on Fri 6 with adventurous Swedish singer Isabel Sorling and her Quintet, more pianistic lyricism from Geneva’s Colin Vallon Trio, whose debut album for ECM has just been released, and PELbO from Oslo with an exhilarating mix of tuba, voice and drums. The final night starts with Dublin’s own RedivideR – brass & bass spearheaded by drummer Matt Jacobson, Slovenia makes its first festival appearance with Kaja Draksler’s Acropolis Quintet, and wrapping it all up with a sheen of catchy Scandinavian creativity, Elifantree from Helsinki. Tickets are €20/€16 per night or a recession-friendly Festival Pass is €60 – that’s a fiver a band. Check it all out at www.12points.ie, www.projectartscentre.ie

New Music & Jazz

2011-04-20T12:06:00.002+01:00

Two shows on Wed 27 April: Some esoteric jazz from Tarab, headed up by Irish-based Italian musician Francesco Turrisi, who launch their debut CD at Whelan’s. With Turrisi on accordion, harmonium and various Arabic and Sicilian frame drums, his jazz/classical background is elaborated by saxophonist Nick Roth and cellist Kate Ellis, while an Irish counterbalance is provided by traditional flautist Emer Mayock and percussionist Robbie Harris. www.improvisedmusic.ie

Meanwhile the Contemporary Music Centre team up with the Irish Composers’ Collective for a Night of New Music in the NCH’s Kevin Barry Room. Kicking off at 6pm with the CMC’s new music::new Ireland salon series (admission free, booking recommended) Movement of Sound is a collaboration between composer/performer Karen Power, who works primarily in the acoustic and electro-acoustic field, with well-known dancer and choreographer Mary Nunan. After a break for wine and tapas, the ICC present the Quiet Music Ensemble, featuring John Godfrey, Séan Mac Erlaine and Isla de Ziah, performing the works of Alyson Barber, Solfa Carlile, Patrick Connolly, Susan Geaney, Aristides Llaneza and Adam McCartney. Pre-concert talk at 8.15pm. www.nch.ie, www.cmc.ie, www.irishcomposerscollective.ie

Sundays@ Noon

2011-04-16T11:47:00.005+01:00

Some great music coming up at the Hugh Lane Gallery. On Sun 17 April the Irish Baroque Orchestra Chamber Soloists , led by Grammy-nominee Monica Huggett , play Schubert’s wonderful Quintet, giving audiences a rare chance to hear this masterpiece, with its unusual combination of 2 cellos, 2 violins and viola, performed on period instruments as audiences in the 1830s would have heard it. On Sun 24 pianist and Fulbright Alum Therese Fahy presents inter-changes: the first decade of Irish piano music in the 21st century prior to a US tour as part of the Imagine Ireland festival. Representing a cross-section of Irish contemporary music, from the traditional to the avant-garde, it features works by Siobhan Cleary, Ronan Guilfoyle, Jonathan Nangle, Kevin O'Connell, Ian Wilson, Michael Holohan and Bill Whelan. Guilfoyle turns up again on Sun 1 May when violinist Michael d’Arcy and pianist Izumi Kimura present ‘Celebrating Bartok’, with Sonatas for Violin and Piano by Ronan Guilfoyle and Bela Bartok, and a new work by Guilfoyle to celebrate Bartok’s 130th anniversary. Sun 8 features the Songs of Seoirse Bodley, with soprano Syvlia O'Brien, and on Sun 15 Annette Cleary and Lance Coburn play works for cello and piano by Rachmaninov and Webern. Concerts start at 12 noon and it’s all FREE, but get there early if you want to get a seat. www.hughlane.ie

Honest

2011-03-19T11:58:00.000Z

A new performance space makes its debut on Mon 21 March downstairs in Cafe des Irlandais on Georges St, onetime home of the late lamented Cafe Bar Deli. The Matchbox Theatre is offering a teatime Play & a Pint deal for a tenner, kicking off with the Irish premiere of last year’s Edinburgh hit Honest by upcoming English playwright DC Moore. A one-man comedy about a disgruntled civil servant who goes on the piss, (and seeing as you’re having a teatime pint there’s plenty of opportunity for life to imitate art) it features Edwin Mullane of Whacker Murphy’s Bad Buzz fame. Runs til 3 April. www.backofthehandtheatre.com

Gorecki's Last Songs

2011-03-05T09:28:00.000Z

The long-established award-winning Silesian Quartet from Poland commemorate the recent death of their fellow countryman, the celebrated Polish composer Henryk Mikołaj Gorecki with a concert at the NCH’s Kevin Barry Room on Sat 12 March. They play two of his chart-topping string quartets written for the Kronos Quartet in the 1990s: No 1 Already it is dusk, and No 3 …songs are sung, completed in 1995 but not premiered until 10 years later. The concert is sponsored by ArtPolonia and the Polish Embassy. www.nch.ie

Sensorium

2011-03-04T09:48:00.003Z

Originally established in York and now transferring to Dublin, The Link Project, brainchild of composer Judith Ring, aims to break a few boundaries and change a few perceptions in the structured presentation of music performance. Sensorium, a week long multidisciplinary music festival running at Project from March 7-12, gives us the first taste of such possibilities, encompassing works that include contemporary music, improvisation, electronic music, electro-acoustic music, audio-visual works, music and dance, and physical theatre. The festival opens on Mon 7 with Sonic Boom, a free concert (booking required) of tape works by electroacoustic composers Ed Bennett, Donnacha Dennehy, Roger Doyle, Judith Ring and Jurgen Simpson, including a chance to hear the first Irish performance of Doyle’s The Ninth Set, winner of the Magesterium Prize at Bourges in 2007. Tue and Wed are given over to workshops, with evening concerts showcasing the results. The Contemporary Music Centre hosts a free lunchtime concert on Thur, while the big noise is reserved for Fri & Sat. On Fri a diverse mixture of technological, instrumental and visual performances features works by Enda Bates, Enrico Bertelli, Theo Burt, Alex Harker, Emily Kalies, Jonathan Nangle, Matt Postle and Judith Ring, including the latter’s My one’s bigger than yours for double bass and cello. Sat wraps things up with a lineup of electro-acoustic, instrumental, electronic, improvisation and audio visual works from Enrico Bertelli, Linda Buckley, Jane Cassidy, Emily Kalies, Matt Postle, Judith Ring, Radek Rudnicki, Garrett Sholdice and Tim Wright. Musicians include Enrico Bertelli and Simon Roth on percussion, Joe Browning on shakuhachi, Kate Ellis on cello, Suzanne Fatta and Michelle O’Rourke on vocals, Matt Postle on trumpet and Malachy Robinson on double bass. Should be a good one. www.the-link-project.com, www.projectartscentre.ie

Lay Me Down Softly

2011-03-03T13:08:00.001Z

Playwright Billy Roche does a nice line in harking back to times past. It’s not mere nostalgia, mind, he has a real knack for tapping into the zeitgeist of another era, his characters embodying the pleasure and pain, expectations and frustrations, a warts-and-all microcosm of rural Ireland. There’s also a yen for music in there too, Roche himself having once been the angular frontman for The Roche Band. Lay Me Down Softly is his most recent play, first seen at the Peacock in 2008 and now at Project in a new production (previews from Tue 8 March, opens Thur 10) following its sell-out run during last year’s Wexford Opera Festival. It’s 1962, and the burlesque world of Delaney’s Travelling Roadshow, with its enticing Boxing Booth, takes centre stage. Step on up, ladies and gentlemen, smell it, sense it, feel it, hear it, and become part of this dark and dangerous story, a mythic tale of love and loss. Meet Theo, the charismatic, violent ringmaster and his Carmen-like lover Lily. Rub shoulders with Peadar, Theo’s tried and not-so-trusted sidekick; the limping Junior, gentle and handsome; the waif-like Emer, searching for her runaway father; and the vain prizefighter Dean, who takes on all comers on a nightly basis – until a challenge from a professional fighter throws a spanner in the works. Playwirght doubles up as director, with a cast that includes Gary Lydon, Pagan McGrath, Lesley McGuire, Anthony Morris, Dermot Murphy and Michael O’Hagan. Design is by Wexford’s Bui Bolg with lighting by Paul Keogan. Runs til Sat 2 April. www.projectartscentre.ie

Sundays@ Noon

2011-02-06T10:55:00.002Z

Well, January certainly got a bit sluggish but hey, it’s a new month, so time to deslug. The Hugh Lane Gallery as always is a great place to be on Sundays @ Noon; today you can hear the resurrected music of Ina Boyle, a vanished Wicklow-based composer of the early 20th century who studied with Vaughan Williams and was the only female composer included in the Carnegie Collection of British Music. On Sun 13 sibling duo Joanne and David Quigley play Sonatas for Violin and Piano by Beethoven and Elgar, and the Irish premiere of Phillip Martin’s Mollification. There’ll be some pretty fancy fingerwork on Sun 20 when pianist Jonathan Plowright plays a scintillating mix of Chopin - including the Fantasie in F minor, 2 Nocturnes and a Scherzo - and Paderewski, from the Series de Morceaux Op 16. And on Sun 27 former NSO principal William Dowdall plays new music from Ireland and New Zealand for flute and electronics as featured on his new CD Breathe. And guess what, it’s all FREE.

Irish Baroque Orchestra

2011-01-09T14:03:00.001Z

Masterworks from the Irish Baroque Orchestra is a series of 4 one hour concerts at Christ Church Cathedral featuring Baroque blockbusters from Germany, France and Italy. Between Tue 18 and Sun 23 Jan you can hear 4 Bach Suites, 4 Rameau Suites and some of Vivaldi’s finest Concerti da Camera, all under the leadership of the irrepressible Monica Huggett. And if you buy 2 tickets online, you get the 3rd one free. www.irishbaroqueorchestra.com

Sundays@ Noon

2011-01-09T13:54:00.005Z

The Hugh Lane Gallery’s free Sundays@ Noon series is back on track. On Sun 16 renowned Irish jazz composer, bassist Ronan Guilfoyle, blurs the lines between classical and jazz in his new improvising chamber group Trilogue, featuring Swiss jazz singer Sarah Buechi and Japanese contemporary classical pianist Izumi Kimura. With a repertoire of newly composed pieces by Guilfoyle and music by Bartok, Ligeti and Bach, Trilogue utilises the virtuosity of all three players and their experience of both improvised and composed chamber music to create a wide range of timbres, moods and dynamics. Just the thing to start the new year. On Sun 23 the Ensemble Avalon, featuring violinist Ioana Pectu-Colan, cellist Gerald Peregrine and pianist Michael McHale play an interesting programme including Debussy's Cello Sonata, Mozart's Piano Trio in B Flat and the world premiere of a new piece by Benedict Schlepper-Connolly. An interesting mix on Sun 30 sees well known soprano Virginia Kerr team up with pianist Therese Fahy for music by Andre Previn - his 1992 piece Honey and Rue - and Messiaen's Poemes pour Mi, dating from 1936. www.hughlane.ie

Tapestry Unravelled

2011-01-09T13:42:00.000Z

Carole King's seminal 1971 album Tapestry is celebrated in a concert presented by Improvised Music Company at the NCH’s John Field Room on Thur 13 Jan. Tapestry Unravelled features soulful London-based Irish chanteuse Christine Tobin, winner of a 2008 BBC Jazz Award, and UK jazz pianist Liam Noble, an acclaimed master of colour and harmony. www.improvisedmusic.ie www.nch.ie

New Horizons

2011-01-09T13:32:00.000Z

Free contemporary music concerts at the NCH? That’s the NSO’s annual Horizons series of lunchtime concerts, which start on Tue 11 Jan with the world premiere of Kevin O’Connell’s large scale Symphony. On Tue 18 there’s another chance to hear David Fennessy’s Bodies along with James MacMillan’s ...as others see us… The focus is on Piers Hellawell on Tue 22 Feb, including Agricolas, his 2008 concerto for clarinet and orchestra performed by Robert Plane. Philip Hammond’s 60th birthday is celebrated on 10 May with a programme that spans the past 30 years. And there’s another world premiere on 17 May, with Jerome de Bromhead’s first Violin Concerto. You can hear the Composers in Conversation, presented by the Contemporary Music Centre, before each concert. www.rte.ie/nationalsymphonyorchestra www.cmc.ie

I'm A Celebrity

2011-01-09T13:02:00.001Z

Anyone for a multi-platform theatrical experience? Check out Peer to Peer’s Celebrity at Project from Tue 11 Jan. A story for our fractured times of love gone wrong, this new play by Jody O’Neill uses text, dance, music and an integrated online experience (www.celebritymagazine.ie) to explore the construction of identity and the invention of character in a world where fame equals power equals love equals worth – anyone can be the next big thing and you're only a Facebook page away from a better, prettier, more popular you. www.projectartscentre.ie

The Head of Red O’Brien

2011-01-09T12:46:00.000Z

A Double Bill by the multi-talented Mark O'Halloran (Adam & Paul, Garage) kicks off at Bewleys (lunchtime) on Mon 11 Jan. First off is a revisiting of The Head of Red O’Brien, as the eponymous Red, on the road to recovery after a near fatal attack by his wife, ponders where it all went wrong. John O'Dowd stars in this bizarre love story with such essential themes as premature baldness, the joys of the pre-marriage course and the career of Sean Connery, not to mention the mysteries of phrenology, linguistics and the eternal appeal of Nora Barnacle's backside. From Jan 31 you can hear the other side of the story in the world premiere of Mary Motorhead, as Red’s missus reveals all from her prison cell. www.bewleyscafetheatre.com

Happy New Year with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra!

2011-01-03T14:55:00.002Z

There’s some cracking concerts coming up from the NSO at the NCH this month. On Fri 7 the dazzling young Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang is the soloist in Rodrigo’s magnificent Concierto de Aranjuez, as well as giving the first Irish performance of Stephen Goss’s Albéniz Concerto. More from sunny Espana in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol and da Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat, with mezzo Fiona Murphy. And all will be revealed in a discussion/demonstration with Xuefei Yang at 7pm. On Fri 14 trombonist Christian Lindberg doubles up as director and soloist, with Jason Sinclair, in Jan Sandstrom’s Echoes of Eternity for two trombones and orchestra; there’s also music by Weber and Sibelius, and Lindberg features again in a late night Trombone recital with music by Lindberg and Cage – admission €5 or free with the evening concert ticket. Dvorak and Haydn on Fri 21, with NSO principal clarinetist John Finucane in the former’s Serenade for Winds and Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey in the latter’s Cello Concertos in C and D. Wispelwey turns up again in the late night recital with Bach’s Suite No 2 in D minor for solo cello. On Fri 28 Gerhard Markson conducts Bruckner’s massive Symphony No 8 in C minor, followed by a late night recital of Beethoven’s Piano Quintet in E flat featuring Finghin Collins and the RTE NSO Principal Winds. Excellent stuff, and as if that wasn’t enough the free lunchtime Horizons series kicks off on Tue 11 Jan – more of that anon. www.rte.ie/nationalsymphonyorchestra www.nch.ie

The Abbey Habit

2010-12-17T08:48:00.001Z

There’s some great stuff coming up at the Abbey. First off is Dion Boucicault’s Arrah-na-Pogue, (last seen at the Abbey over 30 years ago) opening on Wed 21 Dec. There’s nothing like a bit of rip-roaring rollicking Boucicault to beat those winter/recession blues, and when the inimitable Mikel Murfi is at the helm as director, then you’re in for a real treat. Set in the Wicklow mountains in 1798, romance and skullduggery are in the air as popular rebel Beamish MacCoul lies in wait to ambush the rent man before heading off to marry Fanny Power, while down in the valley Shaun the post declares his love for the feisty Arrah. But the evil Michael Feeny has other plans… Original live music performed each night by Conor Linehan, and the top-notch cast includes the Marys Murray & O’Driscoll, the Peters Daly, Gowen & Hanley, Aaron Monaghan, Jack Walsh and Rory Nolan. www.abbeytheatre.ie

Music update

2010-12-11T09:08:00.000Z

Oh My God it’s only two weeks to Christmas, how did that happen? The snow put a halt to everyone’s gallop, but time to get back into the spirit of things. The Christmas concert from Gloria, Dublin’s gay and lesbian choir (now 15 years old), has proved so popular over the last few years that they’ve moved to a much bigger venue, the soaring heights of St Patrick’s Cathedral. It’s on Thur 16 @8pm, admission is free, donations on the night to the Choir and GCN Forever. www.gloria.ie Also at St Patrick’s, the beautiful and very popular Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols takes place on Sun 19 @3.15pm. Get there early to get a seat.

There’s two lots of Christmas Tidings from the excellent National Chamber Choir, in Monkstown Church of Ireland on Wed 22 (8pm) and the Hugh Lane Gallery on Thur 23 (3pm). David Brophy conducts a nice mix of well-known Christmas favourites and more unusual pieces, including Benjamin Britten's Christ's Nativity, Taverner's Ikon of the Nativity, Poulenc’s Quatre motets pour le temps de Noel and Mel Torme's The Christmas Song. www.nationalchamberchoir.com

Let It Snow

2010-12-03T18:55:00.002Z

Oh the weather outside is delightful, but there’s a limit to the number of snowmen you can make and all that sloshing around is a bit hard on the feet. So check out a bit of culture instead – there’s more to December than pantos and Christmas carols. A couple more concerts in the Hugh Lane Sundays @Noon series before they close up shop for the hols: on Sun 5 Dublin based Russian-German pianist Elisaveta Blumina is joined by the Staatskapelle Berlin Woodwind Quintet for a lovely programme of Anton Reicha, Jean Francaix, Piazzolla, and Poulenc’s Sextet for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn. On Sun 12 the Riverrun Piano Quartet continue their Brahms’ series with the Piano Quartet in C minor, along with works for viola and piano by Schumann and Joseph Joachim. And remember it’s all free. www.hughlane.ie

Ok, so you can’t avoid a bit of seasonal caroling, but head off the beaten track a bit and you might find some real treats. Fingal Chamber Choir give their Christmas concert on Sun 12 (4pm) in one of Dublin’s hidden gems, the Church of St John the Baptist in Drumcondra, a fascinating slice of historic rural Ireland plonked in the middle of suburbia.

Two lunchtime concerts from the NSO at the NCH: On Tue 14 the RTE Philharmonic Choir lend their considerable voices to seasonal favourites such as Stille Nacht and Veni, veni Emmanuel alongside Corelli’s Christmas Concerto; on Fri 17 the contribution from the youthful Cor na nOg includes Reger’s The Virgin’s Slumber Song, while the orchestra indulge in some Nutcracker excerpts www.rte.ie

At the NCH’s Kevin Barry Room, a Christmas series with a difference: Soilse na Nollaig brings together some of the leading lights of the traditional Irish music scene including the likes of singers Moya Brennan, Karan Casey, Maighread & Triona Ni Dhomhnaill, Meav and Iarla O Lionaird, and virtuoso musicians Cormac de Barra (harp), Máire Breatnach (fiddle), Steve Cooney (guitar), Niall Vallely (concertina) and Caomhin Vallely (piano). Concerts are at lunchtime and teatime and run from Wed 15 to Tue 23. www.nch.ie

The Contemporary Music Centre are getting into the Christmas spirit with Winter Variations, two free concerts on Dec 15 from newly formed ensemble SoundSet. Featuring contemporary Christmas carols, including new works written specifically for the occasion by Irish composers Anne Marie O’Farrell, Jane O’Leary and Nick Roth, there’s also an international carol by Pawel Lukaszewski of Poland and works by Stephen Gardner, Piers Hellawell and Solfa Carlile. www.cmc.ie

Must Have Music

2010-11-07T13:01:00.003Z

Hey ho, what a way to start the week. Brian Eno’s ambient masterpiece Apollo gets a live performance at the NCH on Tue 9 as one of the key events of Science Week. Performed by pioneering classical ensemble Icebreaker with pedal steel guitarist PJ Cole in a special arrangement by composer Jun Lee, this show returns the music to its original concept as a non-narrative counterpart to some amazing Nasa footage from the Apollo space missions, which will be projected during the performance. www.nch.ie

The Contemporary Music Centre’s salon series continues with new music::new Ireland, two informal concerts at the NCH’s Kevin Barry Room which sees the ConTempo String Quartet take a second look at works written for them in recent years. The first salon on Wed 10 (6pm) features music by Rhona Clarke and Grainne Mulvey, with both composers in attendance. On Wed 17 they’re joined by guitarist John Feeley for movements from Eric Sweeney’s Concert for Guitar, as well as works by Jennifer Walshe and Jane O’Leary. Admission free, booking advisable. www.nch.ie www.cmc.ie

Something quite different at the Samuel Beckett Theatre on Sat 13. Hadith al Rouh (Conversations of the Soul) is a theatrical concert created by Evangelia Rigaki, newly appointed lecturer in composition at TCD. A variation on the Sufi song by the famous Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum, described as the Maria Callas of Arab Music, Rigaki has recomposed the piece for soprano, ud player and a 12 part male voice choir. www.tcd.ie

If it’s Sunday it must be the Hugh Lane Gallery for some great free music @ Noon. Cellist Mirian Roycroft and pianist Reamonn Keary get together on Sun 14 for works by Schumann, Barber and Chopin; on Sun 21 the Callino Quartet play string quartets by Haydn and on Sun 28 Polish pianist Slawomir Wilk plays Chopin as part of the Chopin 200 celebrations. www.hughlane.ie

The Irish Baroque Orchestra are at Christ Church Cathedral on Thur 18 with The Three Fiddlers, a celebration of the violin with works by Pachelbel (Canon & Gigue) Bach (Triple Violin Concerto in D), Vivaldi (Concerto for 3 Violins in F) et al. www.irishbaroqueorchestra.com

Resurgam choir have something quite fascinating on offer in Magnificat: Songs of Freedom and Justice, at St Nicholas of Myra Church on Thur 18. At the core of the programme is Giles Swayne’s 1982 setting of the biblical text, written after the composer spent two months in Senegal and the Gambia, which uses a Jola work-song as an opening call and returning motif, juxtaposing and highlighting the radical import of the traditional words. Other settings of the Magnificat, including those by Irish composers Caitríona Ní Dhubhghaill and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly as well as Tavener and Arvo Part, are layered with a selection of South African freedom songs. www.resurgam.ie

John Ruddock’s excellent MLA is back in action at Imma on Sun 21 with an afternoon concert featuring dymanic Czech violinist Ivan Zenaty. He’s joined by pianist Stanislav Boguna for works by Prokofiev, Beethoven, Clara Schumann and Grieg. Tickets €20 at the door.

Wondering what to do on a chilly Monday night? Head for Whelan’s on Mon 22 where the Improvised Music Company present Chris Potter’s Underground, live and kicking from New York. ‘One of the best saxophonists on the planet’ said The Guardian of Potter, who is joined onstage by drummer Nate Smith, Adam Rogers on guitar and Craig Taborn on Fender Rhodes. www.improvisedmusic.ie

There’s some tasty stuff from the RTE Concert Orchestra at the NCH on Wed 24, when they’re joined by ace fiddler Martin Hayes for the world premiere of Dave Flynn’s Aontacht (Unity): A Concerto for Traditional Irish Musician and Orchestra. If that sounds a bit Riverdancey, Flynn has explained his use of the orchestra as some kind of giant accompanying instrument, a mythical combination of Leo Rowsome’s uilleann pipes, Dennis Cahill’s guitar, Steve Reich’s ensemble and Arvo Part’s strings, while the fiddle draws not only on Hayes’ extraordinary musicianship but the inspiration of fiddlers like Tommy Potts Paddy Canny, Paddy Fahey and Ed Reavy. Hayes is joined by Denis Cahill and violinist Brona Cahill, Flynn’s Music for the Departed, there’s orchestral music from Arvo Part, and by way of a nice bit of contrast, a set from Hayes and Cahill. www.rte.ie www.nch.ie

A new work for the National Chamber Choir created by upcoming young British composer Tarik O’Regan gets its world premiere at St Ann's, Dawson St on Thur 25. Acallam na Senórach /Tales of the Elders is a concert-length chamber piece for 16 singers and guitar soloist (Stewart French), based on the most important medieval text of the Fenian Cycle, which follows the aging Oisín and Caílte as they travel across Ireland with the newly arrived St Patrick. O’Regan’s work has already received numerous awards including two Grammy nominations and his forthcoming opera Heart of Darkness, based on Conrad’s novel, opens in London next year. www.nationalchamberchoir.com

November November

2010-11-07T11:46:00.003Z

What a busy month: the nights may be closing in but that’s no excuse to draw the curtains, light the fire and put up the feet (mm, sounds tempting) – there’s just too much going on out there. Lots of stuff at Project, Corn Exchange are previewing their new production of Beckett’s sublime Happy Days which opens on Tue 9 and runs til Sat 20. Expect a slightly different slant on this portrayal of human resilience in the face of desolation. Fishamble have a new play by Sean McLoughlin Big Ole Piece of Cake, also running til Sat 20. Starting on Mon 29 Irish Modern Dance Theatre bring together video artas Charles Atlas and choreographer John Scott for In This Moment ‘a dazzling dreamlike meeting of high energy dance, vibrant colours, quirky humour, a musical soundscape in five languages and giant projections filmed live with a cast of seven outstanding dancers’. Phew! And from Randolph SD comes Ellamenope Jones, a new musical theatre piece with a contemporary gothic edge and a dollop of greed and desperation that opens on Tue 30. www.project.ie

Meanwhile David Horan’s new production of Brian Friel’s iconic Dancing at Lughnasa is at the Helix until Sat 19 with a top notch cast including Charlie Bonner, Donna Dent, Maeve Fitzgerald, Garret Keogh, Kate Nic Chonaonaigh, Marie Ruane, Stephen Swift and Susannah de Wrixon. www.secondage.com

PurpleHeart are at Focus Theatre with the European Premiere of Men of Tortuga by upcoming American playwright Jason Wells. A dark comedy of negotiation, conspiracy and assassination that exposes the barbarism encoded in corporate bureaucracy, it had a critically acclaimed debut at Steppenwolf’s New Work programme. Captivating, according to Variety magazine. John O’Brien directs this new production with a cast including Dermot Magennis, Les martin, Gerry O’Brien, Stewart Roche and Steve Wilson. Previews from Tue 9, opens thur 11. www.focustheatre.ie

Oper Ireland sing out their last hurrah with their final season at the Gaeity – 7 performances of Puccini’s much loved Tosca kicking off on Thur 11 and running til Sun 21. Irish soprano Orla Boylan shares the lead role with Amarilli Nizza (replacing an indisposed Cara O’Sullivan). Making their Irish debut are Greek baritone Dimitri Platanias as Baron Scarpia and Argentinian tenor Marcello Puente as Sciarrone, and other Irish cast members include Nyle Wolfe and Imelda Drumm. Tickets from €25, student standbys available an hour before the show. www.operaireland.ie

Dermot Bolger’s The Parting Glass is at the Wood Quay Venue on Sun 21 as part of 2010 Innovation Dublin, before heading out to Axis in Ballymun for another short run following its success there and in NYC this summer. Ray Yeates stars in this one man play about a returned emigrant’s experience of contemporary Ireland from bom to bust. A sort of sequel to Bolger’s In High Germany, it’s set on the infamous night when Thierry Henry dashed our World Cup hopes, that sleight of hand becoming a metaphor for the speedy deception of the post-boom years. www.axis-ballymun.ie

The Performance Corporation are heading out on tour with their recent sell-out hit Slattery’s Sago Saga, starting at the Mermaid in Bray on Tue 16 and visiting various points within reach of the capital such as Carlow and Newbridge. Arthur Riordain’s adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s unfinished comic masterpiece – one part carnival, one part surreal satire – features, among other things, a Scotch woman with an evil plan to outlaw the Irish potato. Jo Mangan directs, and the cast includes Clare Barrett, Darragh `Kelly, Lisa Lambe, Aonghus Og McAnally and Barry Ward. www.theperformancecorporation.com

Psycho Live

2010-10-19T21:37:00.001+01:00

Something different for Halloween – Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho with live orchestra. Fifty years on from its release this cinematic masterpiece hits the big screen again, this time with the RTE Concert Orchestra performing Bernard Herrmann’s spine-tingling score live. All your favourite scariest bits enhanced by those shrieking strings, catch it at the NCH on Sun 31 Oct, 3pm & 8pm.www.rte.ie/concertorchestra

Big Ole Piece of Cake

2010-10-19T21:20:00.002+01:00

Fishamble (the New Play Company) are going on a short tour with the world premiere of Big Ole Piece of Cake, the much anticipated second play by Sean McLoughlin, award-winning writer of Noah and the Tower Flower. In this bittersweet comedy Dublin lads Colin and Ray are out of work, out of luck, and nearly out of fags when they hook up with lonely ex-teacher Clarence in his remote Wicklow cottage, forming an unlikely alliance through the course of an increasingly drunken evening. Jim Culleton directs a top-notch cast including Joe Hanley, Mark Lambert and Ian-Lloyd Anderson. The show previews at the Mermaid in Bray on Oct 29 & 30, opens at the Civic in Tallaght on Nov 2 and also visits Project and Draiocht. www.fishamble.com

Lunchtime at St Ann's

2010-10-19T21:05:00.001+01:00

A series of free lunchtime concerts at St Ann’s Dawson Street kicks off on Thur 28 with The Three Graces, an unusual programme of soprano trios by Monteverdi, Luzzaschi and Barbara Strozzi featuring sopranos Elizabeth Hilliard, Rachel Talbot and Claire Wallace. On Nov 4 Michael Lee sings songs by Schubert, Brahms and Vaughan Williams with Fergal Caulfield on piano; music for voice and piano on Nov 11 features soprano Victoria Massey and Padhraic O Cuinneagain; Triona Marshall plays the Irish Harp on Nov 18; and on Nov 25 Denise Neary talks about the History of Music at St Ann’s Church.

Irish Chamber Choir of Paris

2010-10-19T20:55:00.001+01:00

A little bit of cross-cultural pollination takes place on Thur 28 Oct when the Irish Chamber Choir of Paris (the choir of the Centre Culturel Irelandais) give a free concert at the Unitarian Church, a timely volcanic ash rescheduling from last April - remember when that was the only thing we had to worry about. This is the first visit to Dublin of this all-female choir (they’re also heading to Galway), and they’ll be singing Pietro Paolo Bencini’s Missa de Oliveria and motets by Henry Madin, whose family left Ireland with the Wild Geese and who was born in Verdun in 1698. www.centreculturelirlandais.com

Harping on

2010-10-19T20:36:00.000+01:00

The Irish Composers Collective are in the NCH’s Kevin Barry Room on Thur 21 Oct with a concert focusing on the harp. Renowned harpist Anne-Marie O'Farrell will present new works for both classical and lever harps by Johanne Heraty, Daniel Barkley, Marc Tweedie, Piaras Hoban and Hugh Boyle, while Ian McDonnell will premiere an electronic work with material derived directly from the harp itself. A pre-concert talk looks at Traditional Instruments in Contemporary Composition. www.nch.ie

Barry meets Beethoven

2010-10-19T20:28:00.002+01:00

The National Chamber Choir team up with Crash Ensemble for a celebration of the work of internationally renowned Irish composer Gerald Barry at the Hugh Lane Gallery on Thur 21 Oct, 7pm. The programme features the premiere of a new commission entitled Schott and Sons, Mainz, using text from Emily Anderson’s The Letters of Beethoven published in 1961, and also includes Beethoven, Barry’s setting of Beethoven’s sole surviving love letters to a mysterious ‘immortal beloved’. Soloist is British bass Stephen Richardson. www.nationalchamberchoir.com www.crashensemble.com

Arvo Part

2010-10-07T10:33:00.000+01:00

Fergus Sheil conducts the State Choir Latvija in a 4 concert tour, including St Ann’s Dawson Street on Thur 14, in celebration of the 75th birthday of the great Latvian composer Arvo Part. This retrospective of the composer’s choral music spans three decades of work that forms the spiritual core of his output, featuring iconic pieces such as Summa, the deeply reverential Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen and the ethereal Magnificat (1989). A highlight of the programme will be The Deer’s Cry, a setting of St Patrick’s Breastplate described by Part as his ‘gift to Irish audiences’, which was premiered by the State Choir Latvija in Drogheda in 2008. Also on the programme are three spiritual works by Irish composers: Deirdre McKay’s Plunkett’s Last Words, Rhona Clarke’s Two Marian Anthems and Mícheal O Suilleabhain’s Maranatha, an exuberant setting of the ancient ‘O Antiphons’ which also features in Part’s Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen. Tickets from www.tickets.ie

The Met: Live in HD

2010-10-07T10:12:00.000+01:00

The Met: Live in HD Season is at a screen near you, kicking off on Sat 9 with a live screening from New York of Robert Lepages’s groundbreaking new production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold. Bryn Terfel sings the leading role of Wotan, with Dublin-born mezzo Patricia Bardon in the role of Erda. Valery Gergiev conducts Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov on Oct 23; Anna Netrebko returns to the role of Norina, which made her a sensational Met star in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale on 13 Nov; Nicholas Hytner makes his Met directorial debut with Verdi’s Don Carlo on 11 Dec; and in the new year, Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West starring Deborah Voight on 8 Jan and Peter Sellars makes his Met debut with John Adams’ Nixon in China on 12 Feb. Tickets are €25, which might seem a bit steep but it’s a lot cheaper than regular opera, and last year’s season was a huge success. Participating Dublin venues include IMC Dun Laoghaire, Screen Cinema, Swan Cinema Rathmines, Movies@Dundrum and Movies@Swords. www.operaireland.ie

WERK-out

2010-10-07T09:57:00.000+01:00

Thisispopbaby and the Abbey are going back to WERK with Fat of the Land, bringing their Performance/Art/Club to all the Peacock spaces on Sat 9 &16 Oct. Performance roulette, design installation and house of outrageous investigation, previous artists have included Derbhle Crotty, Lisa Hannigan, The Rubberbandits, The Pulpit, Ponydance, Fionn Kidney, Chewy Chewerson, Bitches With Wolves and THEATREclub, all hosted by the inimitable (self-described craic-whore) Neil Watkins. www.thisispopbaby.com www.abbeytheatre.ie

Sundays @ Noon

2010-10-07T09:41:00.000+01:00

Sundays at Noon is back at the Hugh Lane Gallery: free music in great surroundings, what a civilized way to start your Sunday. This Sunday the Duo Nota Bene from Austria play works for violin and piano by Mahler, Reger, Schoenberg and Webern. On Sun 17 flautist William Dowdall gives the first of two concerts featuring music for flute and electronics from his new cd breathe, with works by John Buckley, Philip Hammond, Raymond Deane and Irish premieres by Stephen Matthews, Kevin O’Connell and Benjamin Dwyer. It’s the turn of Dulra on Sun 24 - Adrian Hart on fiddle, Kate Ellis on cello, Emer Mayock on flutes and Mel Mercier on percussion, joined by singer Caitriona OLeary, with music from their new cd Ecstasy. And on Sun 31 (that’s Halloween) Lorcán Mac Mathúna, Cathal Roche and Ian Wilson get together for Common Tongue, a trio combining sean-nós singing, improvising saxophone and live electronics. www.hughlane.ie

Bewleys International Season

2010-10-07T08:46:00.002+01:00

Bewleys are presenting a new International Season of lunchtime plays in association with Paines Plough, one of the UK’s leading new writing companies, and Glasgow’s Oran Mor. 5 premieres (commissioned by PP) from 5 high calibre playwrights over 5 weeks, from 4 Oct to 6 Nov. Marie Jones (of Stones in His Pockets fame) and David Harrower (Blackbird) have both had major international success, while Linda McLean, April De Angelis and Gary Owen have been highly acclaimed in their home countries of Scotland, England and Wales. Opening the season is Marie Jones’ Fly Me to the Moon, a black comedy that explores whether we are valued more in life or in death, as two broke community care workers struggle with their consciences when one of their charges has a posthumous win on the horses (til Sat 9 Oct). Next up is In the Pipeline by Welsh playwright Gary Owen, whose credits include the award-winning The Drowned World, a timely tale of local opposition to a liquid gas line in the countryside of west Wales. It’s followed by Linda McLean’s The Uncertainty Files, Calais by April De Angelis and finally Good with People by David Harrower.

Fly Me…the verdict? Brash and in your face, performed with gusto and (sometimes a tad too much) energy by Kate Tumelty and Abigail McGibbon as two care workers who let temptation get in their way. Some very funny attempts to construct the crime scene a la CSI Miami.

www.bewleyscafetheatre.com

Dublin Theatre Festival Reviews

2010-10-04T21:20:00.007+01:00

TEOREMAT

In many ways this is quite an extraordinary piece of theatre. Slow, hypnotic, sensual, incredibly visual, a vast empty set, a pulsating soundtrack and studied, almost balletic movement as one scene after another slowly comes to life and fades away. The well-ordered lives of the controlled, wealthy family (of Passolini’s cult movie) gradually disintegrate on the arrival of a handsome stranger, who seduces them one by one, bringing first euphoria, then despair when he finally leaves. There are playful elements which at times feel quite out of place; it is when things are at their most heightened that this show really works: the intensity of the mother’s desire, the torture of her downfall. Largely without dialogue, the occasional spoken scenes seem at odds with everything else - the translation feels clunky and it can be hard to make sense of what’s being said, though when asked Do you believe in God? during a (scripted) q&a session at the start, the patriarch, after a pause, gives the wonderfully enigmatic response: I don’t understand the question. (til Mon 4)

PHAEDRA

This is a show that promises much but in the end doesn’t quite deliver. The Ancient Greeks were a violent, incestuous lot, and playwright Hilary Fannin has transported their bad habits and bad tempers to contemporary Ireland, with music by Ellen Cranitch providing the backwash, creating a live score with a nice touch of authenticity that fuses trad Irish with eastern flavours. I hadn’t expected singers, though I guess if you’re drawing inspiration from an opera (Rameau) that’s what you’re going to come up with, but the vocal lines are quite mundane and apart from Fionnuala Gill who has a sweet clear voice, the singers (doubling up as gods) are largely unremarkable. That said, there are some really powerful moments when the whole cast sings ensemble, and the music is most effective when it’s shadowing or echoing the spoken word. The staging, on John Comiskey’s industrial ramped set, is pretty impressive, but the casting is a bit hit and miss. Catherine Walker’s Phaedra is both fragile and forceful, but the object of her obsession, her stepson Hippolytus, and his love-interest Aricia are both a bit watery, despite the former being described as ‘a ride’ by Sarah Greene’s earthy and funny Ismene. Michelle Forbes as Phaedra’s treacherous companion Enone never really gels, but Stephen Brennan’s Theseus gets down and dirty as a boorish reminder of the fled Celtic Tiger. (Project, til Sun 10)

DICIEMBRE

It’s December (Diciembre) and Christmas images abound in this black absurdist comedy balanced somewhere between familial and regional strife. The work of Chilean wunderkind Guillermo Calderon, who would hold that, particularly for younger generations, little has changed in Chile since the fall of Pinochet, it is set in a near future where Chile is in an apparently perpetual state of war with neighbouring Bolivia and Peru. A young soldier visits his diametrically opposed twin sisters, the one an anarchic pacifist who has meticulously planned his defection, the other a rabid patriot intent on sending him back to the front: plenty of room for ideological arguments, but one of the delicious ironies of this play is that these inevitably degenerate into rows about grammar or pronunciation. The appearance of a drunken aunt is a bit of a red herring, but overall an intriguingly edgy piece of theatre. (Project Cube, til Sun 10)

ENRON

Bold, brash and in your face – that’s the 1990s as personified by Enron, the American company that invented creative accountancy and virtual energy. It’s a Thursday afternoon and the Gaiety is filled with the genteel middle classes watching a UK company make a song and dance about the resistible rise and cultural collapse of capitalism. So this is how our pensions went up in smoke, they think, as the Russian doll school of economics reveals how to hide your losses in ever-decreasing subsidiaries. Entertaining and elucidating in a noisy kind of way, but not quite what you want on a Thursday afternoon, and definitely not worth the Daily Telegraph’s 5 stars – unless of course they came from the financial pages. Meanwhile back in the real future, Anglo’s David Drumm has just filed for bankruptcy… (Gaiety, til Sat 16)

www.dublintheatrefestival.com

Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival

2010-09-24T11:39:00.005+01:00

The city is positively awash with culture at the moment, and there’s even more on the way when the 2010 Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival kicks off next Thursday 30 Sept. First the numbers: 363 performances, 31 productions from 10 countries over 18 days, and once again it's one of the rare good news bank stories - kudos to UB for staying the course. With the tag line 'Dublin Loves Drama', the big international focus this year is on contemporary Polish Theatre and Culture, POLSKI TEATR, with three fascinating high profile shows that should be very different: the legendary Krystian Lupa’s epic 7½ hour (yes, that’s 450 minutes, tho with a couple of intervals) production FACTORY 2 which revolves around the glamour of the notorious Andy Warhol Factory, blending Warhol’s own video work with improvisation and performance (9-10 Oct). Two of Lupa’s disciples are also in town; Grzegorz Jarzyna, whose thrilling Festen played at the Abbey in 2004, delves into Pasolini’s cult movie Teorema in his hypnotic and near wordless tale of seduction and destruction T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. (1-4 Oct). Meanwhile Jan Klata, the enfant terrible of Polish Theatre, directs the anarchic THE DANTON CASE, an electrifying adaptation of a renowned Polish play set in the French Revolution, that’s picked up an impressive 25 awards worldwide (13-16 Oct). Playing a supporting role, Lost In Translation will investigate contemporary Polish culture and its relationship with Ireland in a programme featuring music, literature, film and multi-media events, including a concert to live animation by a band playing toy pianos and other very small instruments. Definitely the kind of stuff that makes a festival special.

Other international work includes CIRCA from Australia, a new creation from Galway Arts Festival favourites in their signature style that integrates formidable acrobatic circus skills and contemporary dance with state of the art sound, light and projection (30Sept -3Oct). Coming direct from an extended West End run is the hugely acclaimed Olivier Award-winning ENRON, an exuberant production using music, movement and video in a narrative of greed and loss from the tumultuous 1990s; come and see where it all went wrong (12-16 Oct). THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF HUGH HUGHES is a trio of shows from the eponymous emerging Welsh artist, a celebration of the imagination trailing rave reviews and hailed as hilarious and heartfelt (12-17 Oct). Doing something similar, and described as charming and funny, L’EFFET DE SERGE from France explores the wonder of the ordinary in a series of low-tech micro dramas (13-17 Oct). And in case it’s all getting too sweet, DICIEMBRE from Chile’s Teatro en el Blanco is a politically charged, blackly comic, razor sharp family drama about a near-future war in Chile (6-10 Oct).

There’s plenty of new Irish productions from all the leading companies. At the Gate there’s a major season of Beckett, Pinter and Mamet: Beckett’s ENDGAME features Owen Roe and David Bradley, with Barry McGovern in the world premiere staging of WATT; Wayne Jordan directs Pinter’s CELEBRATION, a post-theatrical night out, laced with dark humour and wicked satire; and Mamet’s classic comedy of manners BOSTON MARRIAGE is directed by Aoife Spillane-Hinks. (30 Sept- 17 Oct) Ibsen’s JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN is at the Abbey in a new version by Frank McGuinness. The great man falls from grace in this devastating and darkly comic play with a star-studded cast including Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan and Fiona Shaw (previews from 6 Oct, opens 13) Mikel Murfi directs B IS FOR BABY at the Peacock, Carmel Winter’s tender and sharp-witted take on life at a care home and the joy of make-believe (opens 30 Sept). Druid have Sean O’Casey’s THE SILVER TASSIE, directed by Garry Hynes and featuring an ensemble of 19 actors (5-10 Oct). THE REHEARSAL, PLAYING THE DANCE is Pan Pan’s idiosyncratic take on Hamlet, with actors competing to take the title role – shades of Denmark’s Got Talent? (5-10 Oct). Rough Magic’s new version of PHAEDRA responds to both Racine’s play and Rameau’s opera in a dynamic collaboration between writer Hilary Fannin and musician Ellen Cranitch. (3-10 Oct).

In another thematic strand, What Are You Looking At looks at the changing role of the audience in contemporary theatre. Belgium's Ontroerend Goed follow last year’s hit For Once and for all we’re going to tell you who we are so shut up and listen) with three immersive theatrical creations (probably not for the faint-hearted): THE SMILE OFF YOUR FACE, a one-on one blind-folded, wheelchair-bound experience of scents and sounds; INTERNAL, aiming to build a meaningful relationship with a stranger in 25 minutes; and A GAME OF YOU, where seven strangers get to know you better than you know yourself (30 Sept -17 Oct). Tim Crouch is back with THE AUTHOR, performed within the audience, telling the story of another shocking and abusive play (12-17 Oct); and upcoming Irish theatre-maker Una McKevitt’s new show 565+ follows one woman’s survival through the healing powers of theatre (30 Sept -3 Oct).

The Festival spreads its wings a bit, heading to Axis in Ballymun for Nilaja Sun’s Obie-winning NO CHILD…, an insightful and often hilarious look at New York’s public education system (13-16 Oct). And THE GIRL WHO FORGOT TO SING BADLY, featuring the wonderful Louis Lovett, visits the Civic, The Ark and Draiocht (5-15 Oct) as part of the ReViewed strand. There’s also a chance to ReView UNA SANTA OSCURA, a collaboration between composer Ian Wilson and director Tom Creed (8-10 Oct) and Beckett’s ACT WITHOUT WORDS II, a street-specific performance from Company SJ (6-9 Oct). The Ark’s FAMILY SEASON has shows from Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark, and among the special events is Project Brand New’s THE MAGIC IF, one day of delving into the dreams of an array of theatre makers (Oct 16).

www.dublintheatrefestival.com

Culture Night

2010-09-21T08:33:00.004+01:00

There's nothing like a bit of culture, especially when it's free, and there'll be culture to beat the band next Friday, 24 Sept. The city has been conveniently divided up into different Quarters (very European), with late night openings (many til 11pm), special events and loads of fun. There's even free buses to take you there and back. Watch this space for the best bits: visit the Guinness Storehouse or the Jameson Distillery for a complimentary pint or whiskey; take part in the annual Culture Night Treasurehunt around the Francis Street galleries or lose yourself in Gospel Music at Wood Quay. Dublin Civic Trust are displaying The Irish House, a Victorian pub salvaged from Wood Quay, and you can catch Dara O'Brien playing the sitar at the Chester Beatty Library. There's musical/literary/arty fun at the Gutter Bookshop, Oxfam Books and Project, live performance and interactive installations at the Contemporary Music Centre, and sean nos singing and dancing at Gaelchultur. Filmbase is showing Irish short movies, there's a rake of pipers at Na Piobairi Uilleann, leading sculptor Michael Warren is at Hillsboro Fine Art and there's a barbeque outside the Hugh Lane. Burundi Drumming and an outdoor movie at Meeting House Square, dance classes at Dance House, poetry, prose and performance at the Pearse Centre, Scrabble in Spanish at Instituto Cervantes and Poetry Ireland's Open Mike session at the Unitarian Church. Mapping Urban Ireland is at the Royal Irish Academy, Nuala Hayes tells stories from the Tain at the National Museum, and well-known poet Tahar Bekri reads his work to music at the Alliance Francaise. www.culturenight.ie

This Looks Interesting

2010-09-13T21:48:00.003+01:00

Here’s a few Fringe shows that could be well worth checking out:

The Truth of the Moon brings together writer Simon Doyle, comedian Sonya Kelly and director Sophie Motley for an illustrated lecture by fabled monologist Felicia Umbral, which might not be all that is seems. (New Theatre Tue 14-Sat 18) www.fumbral.weebly.com. Kazuko Hohki’s multimedia performance piece My Husband is a Spaceman, derived from an old Japanese folktale, takes an intriguing look at cross cultural relationships. (Project Wed 15) From Toronto comes Little Illiad a live and virtual show on the theme of Homer’s lost poem, the tale of the end of the Trojan War as explored by Thom, a soldier on his way to Afghanistan. (Smock Alley Mon 20-Sat 25) Return features storyteller Polarbear, one of the UK’s leading spoken-word artists, in the universal tale of a man attempting to find out where he belongs. (Bewleys Mon 20-Fri 24)

This sounds like a sweet lunchtime show. Two highly regarded choreographers, Muirne Bloomer and Emma O’Kane get together for The Ballet Ruse, a witty dance piece about the pitfalls and pressures of ballet dancing, the battle for perfection in that sugar-coated world and the struggle from barre to bar. Design is by the always adventurous Monica Frawley. (Project til Sat 18) More dance when Fidget Feet get airborne in Hang On, a fusion of dance and gravity defying aerial circus skills. (Project Fri 17-Sun 19) And Dance in Progress at DanceHouse features A Study in Absence/A Study in Presence, a refreshing look at our perception of dance and juggling. (Tue 21-Fri 24)

There’s some edgy sonic exploration in Four on the Fringe of Folk, an Irish/Swedish collaboration featuring Caoimhin O Raghallaigh on various fiddles, Seán Óg on sax, Petter Berndalen on snare drum and some fancy footwork from Nic Gareiss. (Fringe Factory Sat 18) There’s more weird and wonderful sounds in the Icelandic Weekend (Thur 23-Sat 25), with indie electro from FM Belfast, charismatic solo songstress Olof Arnalds and the lush, ethereal soundscapes of Amiina. A Feast for St Michael and all Angels offers an experimental Evensong service at Christ Church Cathedral with the Cathedral choir. (5pm Sat 25, adm free)

Comedywise, Colm O’Grady gets seriously funny about potatoes when he takes on the famine in his satirical tragicomedy Delicious O’Grady. (Smock Alley Mon 20-Sat 25) And Jono Katz gets emotional about prickly plants in Cactus: The Seduction as he wanders hallucinating through the desert in search of true love. (New Theatre til Sat 18) Charity shopping gets personal in Help Me! Help Me! inviting you to rummage through Priscilla Robinson’s latest purchases at 3/4 Smock Alley Court (Thur 23-Sun 26) and on the same dates Dame Lane evolves into a transient community space in Laneway. And last but not least, Whiplash go to bed very late (3am, Sun 26) in Red Line Dead Line, a story of Love, Debt and the Loving Dead. The Complex, Smithfield.

www.fringefest.com

Fringe Reviews

2010-09-13T19:39:00.006+01:00

The Pajama Men: Last Stand to Reason

Absolut Fringe Factory

The Pajama Men, not surprisingly, wear pyjamas. This doesn’t really have any bearing on the show, except perhaps to suggest that they’re caught up in some kind of mad nightmare – but they’re very discreet pyjamas, and this is the North Inner City, so nobody bats an eyelid. We’re in a new Fringe venue and on opening night it’s packed – literally: chairs are so jammed together that you can’t avoid getting up close and pretty personal with complete strangers. And it’s hot… let the nightmare begin.

The Pajama Men are a likeable duo, the one a put-upon poodley type, the other a dead ringer for Fr Dougal, with an incredibly mobile face. They power their way through a show that combines manic stream of consciousness with hectic physical comedy – some very funny, and some a tad laboured – switching multiple characters at the drop of a hat, the pitch of a voice or the pull of a grin. It’s a trainride to hell, and some of it is quite bizarre – an extended riff on horse porn, for example – but there are also some real gems: the one-sided fisticuffs spring to mind, bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase beating yourself up. (until Sat 25)

What the Folk!

There’s a little bit of Kerry in Temple Bar, where 4 lively members of Siamsa Tire, the National Folk Theatre, have taken up residence – literally – in 25 Eustace Street, a beautifully restored early Georgian house owned by the Landmark Trust. They welcome us into their temporary home, offer us tea and cake and we all sit down for a chat. We prefer singing and dancing to talking, they say, as they bust into razor sharp harmonies, indulge in a joyous knees-up and give us a very funny and informative demonstration of the difference between folk and competitive dancing, all the while sharing stories about the pleasures and pains of belonging to the extended Siamsa family. Absolutely charming. (until Sun 26)

Medea

Samuel Beckett Theatre

This is really gripping stuff, a Medea for our times in a powerful and lucid translation by Scottish poet Robin Robertson. Eileen Walsh is mesmerising as Medea, raw, wretched, consumed with shock and rage at her husband’s betrayal, as those around her tiptoe in the shadows, hoping to calm things down and dreading what might happen, moving at times like dancers as they weave in and out of focus. With a terrific cast, director Selina Cartmell works her magic to make all the extraneous elements gel in this absolutely compelling production, from Paul O’Mahony’s two-tier set with its little rooms laid out like a story book, to the sharp-edged lighting, subtle choreography and occasional moments of freeze-frame, while the natural ease of those two little brothers (Levi and Isaac O’Sullivan) compounds the intensity of the drama that surrounds them. And boy is this intense – so much so that you almost feel the final confrontation between Medea and Jason might have been better left unsaid. But all in all a vivid and thrilling show. (until Sat 25)

Delicious O'Grady

Smock Alley

This got a stinking review in the Irish Times, which probably says more about the reviewer than the show. Having got a taster of this one-man famine skit as part of Project Brand New, I was happy to go back for more. Granted, there are flaws, some of the material is pretty weak, especially at the start, and some of the characterisations are a bit thin, but stick with it and you’ll be treated to some very funny stuff, as well as clever use of video projections, not to mention O’Grady’s impressive acrobatic skills. Colm O’Grady’s humour mightn’t be to everyone’s taste, but 1 star? And The Pajama Men got 5????? (until Sat 25)

www.fringefest.com

Dublin Fringe Festival

2010-08-31T11:00:00.002+01:00

If it’s September it must be Fringe time, and sure enough the Absolut Dublin Fringe Festival is just around the corner, 16 days of madness – how about an escaped Zoo, men in Pajamas, 50 naked women and a dancing minotaur for starters – running from Sept 11-26. Theatre, dance, comedy, visual & performance art, and the Absolut Fringe Factory, home to a scintillating music programme including wildly entertaining American performers Taylor Mac and YouTube sensation Miranda Sings; an eclectic Irish Music weekend which featuring Fringe favourite Camille O’Sullivan, a Pocket Jazz festival and Four on the Fringe of Folk; and an Icelandic Weekend of Music featuring Amiina, Ólöf Arnalds and FM Belfast.

Galway’s Macnas are back in town for the opening weekend with a large scale and typically flamboyant outdoor spectacle. Comedy headliners the Pajama Men are in for the duration with their high energy Last Stand to Reason, a hurricane of off-the-wall physical and verbal comedy. On the theatre front, a new show from Siren Productions gives us a contemporary and visceral take on a timeless classic, a new translation by Scottish poet Robin Robertson of Euripides’ Medea, directed by Selina Cartmell. There’s 3 new shows from ambitious young collective Theatreclub, and Ponydance will be out and about with their new show Anybody Waitin’? The Company take on the mammoth task of looking at Joyce’s Ulysses as a template for Irish identity in As you are now so once were we.

The Show In A Bag project features some of Ireland’s best loved actors performing new works created especially for them by playwright Gavin Kostick. In the dance strand there’s Muirne Bloomer & Emma O’Kane’s The Ballet Ruse, Emma Martin’s Listowel Syndrome and double bills from the likes of Fidget Feet. In Berlin Love Tour, Playgroup bring you on a guided tour of Berlin – on the streets of Dublin, and Delicious O’Grady brings you a story of love, loss and potatoes in a one-man tragicomedy set in the time of the Famine.

International work includes the bizarre sounding JERK, a reconstruction of the horrific crimes and murders of young boys in 1970’s Texas using glove puppets. Nic Green’s Trilogy, a runaway hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, is a celebration/interrogation of the joys and complexities of being a woman today, the first part ending with a high energy naked dance performed by some 50 volunteers.

Check it all out@ www.fringefest.com

RTE National Symphony Orchestra

2010-08-31T10:59:00.000+01:00

There’s some tasty concerts coming up from the RTE NSO when they start their new season at the NCH on Fri 10 Sept. The opening concert kicks off with Jump Up!, a welcoming Fanfare for new Principal Conductor Alan Buribayev, and features acclaimed pianist Simon Trpceski in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 4. Fri 17 has a Latin American flavour, with accordionist James Crabb playing Piazzolla’s Concierto de Aconcagua, and there’s also Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras and Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. A new late night short concert slot (10pm) sees James Crabb and RTE NSO Principals in a Tangos Recital – a fiver in or free with the main concert ticket. On Fri 24 pianist Barry Douglas directs the NSO from the keyboard in Brahms Piano Concerto No 1 and conducts the Mussorgksy/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition.

October kicks off with a concert of music inspired by dance, juxtaposing Ravel’s Shéhérazade and La Valse with John Adams’ Guide to Strange Places and The Chairman Dances. Fri 8 has Michael Tippett’s Fantasia and Beethoven’s Eroica, conducted by Kenneth Montgomery. Bach’s Mass in B Minor has pride of place on Fri 15 with the RTE Philharmonic Choir and soloists, and a late night concert features Finghin Collins and NSO Principal Winds in Mozart’s Piano and Wind Quintet. On Fri 22 John Finucane directs and is soloist in Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Concerto, also conducting Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier suite and Dance of the Seven Veils, and you can hear more Stauss – Don Quichotte – alongside Debussy and Ravel on Fri 29. www.rte.ie

Guna Nua

2010-08-31T10:58:00.002+01:00

Guna Nua are heading out on the road with the world premiere of Chicane, which opens at the Civic Theatre in Tallaght on Sept 4 and tours to Draiocht in Blanchardstown, the Everyman in Cork, the Belltable in Limerick and the Mill Theatre in Dundrum. This is the first play by well known Irish actor Anthony Brophy, probably most familiar for his long-running portrayal of Eustache Chapuys in The Tudors. He’s gone for something of a thriller: ‘Packed with suspense, violence and deceit, Chicane treads a tightrope of revenge and redemption, a who-done-it with surprises lurking around every corner. Ultimately, however twisted, it is a story of love and loyalty.’ Heady stuff then. Paul Meade directs, and Barry Barnes, Jane McGrath and Emmet Kirwan make up the twisted trio. www.gunanua.com

Metropolis

2010-08-31T10:57:00.001+01:00

Fritz Lang's epic and extraordinary silent movie Metropolis gets a rare screening with live orchestral accompaniment at the NCH on Sat 4 Sept. Lang’s sci-fi masterpiece has been seen in Dublin before – I remember a fascinating outdoor screening in Temple Bar back in the 90s – but this is the first time since its 1927 release that the full uncut movie will be shown. Against the director’s wishes, the original version was cut by a quarter, and the excised footage was presumed lost. Until, in one of those fairytale moments of movie history, several dusty reels were discovered in a small museum in Buenos Aires in 2008. It’s now been painstakingly restored and was premiered earlier this year at the Berlin International Film Festival, with a newly adapted score for Salon Orchestra based on the original 1927 score. There’s also an accompanying season at the IFI of Lang's other work alongside some science fiction classics that he influenced. www.nch.ie

Six Strings for Two Heels

2010-08-31T10:56:00.001+01:00

Get those hands clapping and those heels clicking for a vibrant splash of flamenco at the Helix on 3 & 4 Sept. Six Strings for Two Heels, which premiered in June at the annual Flamenco Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico, features virtuoso composer and guitarist Juan Antonio Suárez ‘Cano’ and award-winning dancer and choreographer Concha Jareño, two of Spain's most highly regarded artists. More info@ www.flamencoindalo.com

Irish Composers Collective

2010-08-19T17:15:00.001+01:00

The Irish Composers Collective are back in the NCH’s Kevin Barry Room on 31 Aug with a concert by renowned Balkan band Yurodny. On the programme are premieres of the latest works by DE McCarthy, Francis Heery, Matthew Whiteside, Amanda Feery, Dennis Wyers and Yurodny’s own Adrian Hart. www.irishcomposerscollective.org , www.nch.ie

The Lily Lally Show

2010-08-19T17:14:00.001+01:00

Veteran actor Barbara Brennan reprises her much acclaimed role in Hugh Leonard’s touching and funny one-woman play The Lily Lally Show in a new lunchtime production for Bewley’s, directed by Mark O’Halloran. First staged at the Abbey in 1994, Brennan plays Mary Moone, Ireland's one-time Queen of Comedy, who finds herself auditioning for a mysterious unseen observer alone on the set of the Ballybeyond Railway Hotel. Recalling her extraordinary journey in showbiz, from lowly beginnings at The Five Lamps to her glorious comic partnership with Jack Looby, the ‘Napoleon of Variety’, she revisits her old routines, remembers the great characters of a lost era and reflects upon a life of bittersweet extremes. Previews 23 Aug, opens Wed 25 til Sat 11 Sept. www.bewleyscafetheatre.com

A Dream Play

2010-08-19T17:13:00.000+01:00

The National Youth Theatre takes over the Peacock stage from Mon 23 Aug (previews) til Sat 28 for Caryl Churchill’s version of August Strindberg’s A Dream Play. Jimmy Fay directs the 16-strong cast in one of Strindberg’s most influential plays, written in 1901 in the midst of a mental breakdown, a surreal experiment which aimed to imitate the form of a dream. Caryl Churchill said of her 2005 version: ‘I’m not sure how I’d feel if someone treated one of my plays the way I’ve treated Strindberg’s. I’d like to think he’d be glad about this version. I’d like to make him smile. But maybe he’d say, Oh woe. Life is wretched.’ www.nayd.ie

Music in the Historic Quarter

2010-08-19T17:12:00.001+01:00

The streets are alive with the sound of… the latest offering from the Contemporary Music Centre. Running from 21 Aug to 1 Sept, Music in the Historic Quarter is an outdoor music trail and a series of mostly free events around the older and more interesting parts of the city, including St Audoen’s Church, the Civic Offices Amphitheatre, Christ Church and St Patrick’s Cathedrals, The Back Loft, City Hall, The Coach House and Smock Alley Theatre. The music trail features works by Irish composers, among them Ian Wilson, Kevin Volans, Donnacha Dennehy and Judith Ring, playing at 5 outdoor locations – some of which require a compatible smartphone. The Rawstorne Singers are at Christ Church Cathedral for Choral Evensong most evenings, Daoiri Farrell and Friends are at St Audoen’s on 21 Aug, on 26 there’s Don Giovanni at the Civic Offices at lunchtime and Stuart Nicholson gives his Starwars and Rude Noises organ recital at St Patrick’s Cathedral. On 27 Anuna are at the The Back Loft and you can hear the Bell Ringers at Christ Church. Dublin Guitar Quartet are at City Hall lunchtime on 28, Music Network present Paudie O Connor on box & Aoife Ni Chaoimh on fiddle at the Coach House, Dublin Castle on 31, and ConTempo Quartet play Smock Alley on 1 Sept. More info and reservations@ www.cmc.ie

Focus

2010-08-13T17:11:00.001+01:00

The Focus Theatre, possibly Dublin’s smallest theatre, is open again after a spot of refurbishment, bringing a much-loved and much-needed performance space back into circulation. Playing at the moment is Frank McGuinness’s one-woman play Baglady, directed by Caroline Fitzgerald and featuring Maria McDermottroe, which runs til Sat 21. Previewing from Tue 24 and opening on Mon 30, Joe Devlin directs the premiere of Elizabeth Moynihan’s play TIC, a Gothic tale of love and sexual politics set in Ireland in the 1890s and revolving around a woman with Tourette’s syndrome. And shows coming up include Dennis Kelly’s Orphans in October, the European premiere of Jason Wells’ Men of Tortuga in November, and Mary McEvoy in David Lordan’s Jo Bangles in December. www.focustheatre.ie

RTE Concert Orchestra

2010-08-13T17:10:00.001+01:00

The RTE Concert Orchestra are having a pretty busy month at the NCH, with Fri evening and Tue lunchtime concerts. Fri 13 & Sat 14 sees the (once) gorgeous Anthony Andrews (remember him, the teddybear-clutching Sebastian of Brideshead Revisited?) taking on the role of Prof Henry Higgins in a concert version of My Fair Lady, with a starry cast that also includes the likes of Julian Ovenden of Foyle’s War/The Royal fame. Legendary French film composer Michel Legrand multitasks as conductor, pianist and singer in an evening of his classic movie music on Fri 20. Russell Watson, ‘the People’s Tenor’, reschedules his ash cloud cancellation on Sun 22; and the music of Bill Whelan is celebrated by an all-singing, dancing and playing cast including Julie Feeney, Zoe Conway and Declan Masterson on Fri 27. www.rte.ie

The Colleen Bawn

2010-07-29T16:22:00.000+01:00

Project are doing something a bit different this summer: a six week run of Dion Boucicault's The Colleen Bawn (until 4 September) which then tours to the Civic Theatre in Tallaght, Draiocht in Blanchardstown, the George Bernard Shaw in Carlow and the Everyman in Cork. Land, greed, class, religion and sexual desire are all in the mix in this classic Irish drama written in 1860, the story of a family in crisis where the importance of love is outweighed by the lure of financial gain. By turn dark, impassioned and exhilarating, you can expect some high energy from this Bedrock production, directed by Jimmy Fay. www.projectartscentre.ie

Get Naked with Fringe

2010-07-29T16:20:00.000+01:00

It could be all that sunshine has gone to our heads, but what with last month’s Dip in the Nip way out west, it looks like getting naked is the new black. Now Dublin Fringe Festival (of which more anon) has come up with another chance to bare it all: ‘Women of all ages, backgrounds, shapes, sizes, levels of fitness and ability are sought to perform naked in an ensemble dance celebrating the female form, as part of Nic Green’s extraordinary, multi award winning show Trilogy as part of this year’s ABSOLUT Fringe.’ A runaway hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, the first part of this celebration/interrogation of the joys and complexities of being a woman today ends with a high energy naked dance performed by the volunteers. Evening workshops take place in the week leading up to the show (which runs from Sept 22-25) including an initial (fully clothed) meeting to discuss everything over tea and cake. Lyn Gardner’s review for The Guardian said: “Trilogy is angry, joyous, heartfelt, rigorous and radiant with hope. It makes you want to fling off your clothes and dance.” So what are you waiting for? More info on how to take part from kate@fringefest.com, www.fringefest.com

Festival of World Cultures

2010-07-18T08:37:00.000+01:00

The timing always seemed perfect – that last weekend in August when you hadn’t quite given up hope on the summer; the music was great and the weather was always kind (ah, nostalgia…) But now 10 years on, the dlr Festival of World Cultures is moving to a new slot in late July (23-25), allowing it to tap in more effectively to the international touring circuit. One of the world’s top 25 International Music Festivals, according to Songlines Magazine, this 3 day multi-arts, multi-cultural fiesta brings a real buzz to normally sedate Dun Laoghaire, as over 800 artists from 33 countries take part in 180 events – most of them free. Headliners include legendary Algerian King of Raï, Khaled; former Sigur Rós string section Amiina; Beninese voodoo funk sensationsOrchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou; rising Malian star Rokia Traoré; and creative revolutionaryJah Wobble with his new project The Nippon Dub Ensemble. And among the special 10th Anniversary events are Homeland a collaboration between 4 fascinating world voices – Iarla Ó Lionáird, Tanya Tagaq and duo Adjágas; dancing in the streets with the Birthday Bloco Carnival;and Radio Hemisphere, the festival’s first internet radio. Loads more besides, check it all out@www.festivalofworldcultures.com

National Chamber Choir

2010-07-18T08:36:00.001+01:00

The National Chamber Choir give the world premiere of a new work by renowned South African-born Irish composer Kevin Volans in the Chapel Royal at Dublin Castle on Thur 22. Canciones del Alma – Songs for the Soul – was commissioned by Elizabeth Chatwin, widow of the celebrated British author Bruce Chatwin (whose brilliant The Songlines I’ve just finished re-reading) to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his death. It will be performed alongside renaissance masterpieces from Spain, Portugal and Italy, including Monteverdi’s Magnificat, in a programme conducted by Paul Hillier and appropriately entitled Walking Home. And if you’re lucky enough to be in Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo on Fri 23, the same concert will be repeated FREE (but ticketed - 094 9024444). www.nationalchamberchoir.com

The Plough and the Stars

2010-07-18T08:35:00.000+01:00

There’s more classic theatre coming up at the Abbey, with Sean O’Casey’s masterpiece The Plough and the Stars previewing from Wed 21 and opening on Tue 26. Set against the backdrop of the Easter Rising and written a mere 10 years after those momentous events, it’s a play that has graced the Abbey stage many times, but this time around upcoming young director Wayne Jordan, who greatly impressed as director of Tom Kilroy’s recent Christ Deliver Us should give things a fresh perspective. The large cast includes the likes of Barry Ward, Cathy Belton, Denise Gough, Frankie McCafferty, Gabrielle Reidy, Joe Hanley, Karl Quinn, Laurence Kinlan, Natalie Radmall-Quirke and Peter Hanley. www.abbeytheatre.ie

Slattery's Sago Saga

2010-07-18T08:34:00.000+01:00

Always on the lookout for something different, The Performance Corporation take over historic Rathfarnham Castle from Fri 16 to Sun 25 for their latest show Slattery’s Sago Saga, adapted by Arthur Riordan (of Improbable Frequency fame) from the unfinished novel by the late great Flann O’Brien. One part carnival, one part surreal (of course) satire, Tim Hartigan’s quiet life at Poguemahone Hall is shattered with the arrival of a Scottish woman with an evil plan, not to mention the chaos surrounding a politically correct leprechaun, a beautiful typist and a tycoon TD bent on bankrupting the country. Sounds like fun. Jo Mangan directs a terrific cast including Malcolm Adams, Clare Barrett, Darragh Kelly, Lisa Lambe and Louis Lovett. www.performancecorporation.com

Death of a Salesman

2010-07-11T19:05:00.001+01:00

Another big name takes to the Gate stage in Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece Death of a Salesman. Heading the cast as Willy Loman is American film and stage actor Harris Yulin – you mightn’t know the name but you’ll definitely recognise the face: he first popped up in 1983 as crooked cop Mel Bernstein in Scarface, and has since appeared in many big-budget movies such as Clear and Present Danger, Ghostbusters II and Training Day, and on the small screen in the likes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, 24, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Entourage and Frasier. Other familiar (Irish) faces in the cast include Stephen Brennan, Deirdre Donnelly, John Kavanagh, Barry McGovern, Elizabeth Moynihan, Rory Nolan and Stephen Swift, and heading the creative team is American director David Esbjornson. Previews from Thur 15 and opens Tue 20. www.gatetheatre.ie

Summer in the City

2010-07-08T17:39:00.003+01:00

Things get swinging this weekend (8-11 July) with Temple Bar’s Summer Sensational festival (don’t know about that name tho). Lots of (mostly) free stuff to do in the city come rain or shine – the Contemporary Music Centre is inviting you to Play With Music – two interactive multimedia installations: Dioneye, which distorts the participants’ images while using their movements to generate different sounds; and Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd, which exploits the multiple sound interactions of people as they sit on a park bench. There’s also circus and storytelling including a live Where’s Wally?; sean-nos singing and dancing workshops (that should be fun); a Dance Social with Coisceim; music including Julie Feeney and Balkanarama; a whole rake of short movies at various venues courtesy of Filmbase; a family festival at the IFI; and Movies on the Square including Stand by Me, Dirty Dancing and Jaws. www.templebar.ie

More June

2010-06-24T17:15:00.004+01:00

The RTE National Symphony Orchestra may have finished their subscription season but they haven’t quite gone on their hols yet. Instead they’re doing a series of Musical Postcards at the NCH Tue lunchtime and Fri evenings (start time 7.30pm). Among the more interesting are a taste of Bohemia on Fri 25 with Smetana’s Vlatava and Dvorak’s Cello Concerto; Copland and Gershwin on Fri 2 July including Gershwin’s Piano Concerto; Grieg’s Norwegian and Symphonic Dances on Tue 6; Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 on Fri 16; Mozart’s Concerto for Flute & Harp and Beethoven’s Symphony No 1 on Fri 23; and choral group Anuna with music from the 15th to the 21st century on Fri 30. www.rte.ie www.nch.ie

There’s French music from the National Chamber Choir at Smock Alley’s Banquet Hall on Sun 27 June – or if you want to travel further afield, in Navan on Fri 25 and Carlingford on Sat 26. Conducted by the choir’s Artistic Director Paul Hillier, who was founding director of the famous Hilliard Ensemble, the programme revolves around love, birds and war, with a cappella songs by Janequin, Poulenc and Debussy. www.nationalchamberchoir.com

An interesting programme from the Irish Baroque Orchestra at Christ Church Cathedral on Sat 26 June pits the young Mozart against the more mature Haydn. Young Progidy / Old Master features Mozart’s Gallimathius Musicum, written when he was just ten, and his slightly later Bassoon Concerto (with IBO and Scottish Chamber Orchestra principal Peter Whelan), along with Haydn’s Symphony No 60, written when Haydn was in his 40s. www.irishbaroqueorchestra.com

Tall Tales are at Project from June 29 (preview) with the world premiere of BogBoy, a new play by Deirdre Kinahan that echoes with the fate of the ‘disappeared’ from 1970s Northern Ireland. Set in contemporary Co. Meath, it interweaves the stories of three people who themselves have disappeared through the cracks of Irish society - a young boy from Belfast, a struggling Dublin heroin addict and a reclusive local farmer. Shifting timelines reveal deep friendship, violent murder and unforgivable deceit, as well as a ‘gloriously comic’ clash of contemporary Irish rural/urban culture. Jo Mangan (of The Performance Corporation) directs and the cast includes Steve Blount, Damian Devaney, Emmett Kirwan and Mary Murray. www.projectartscentre.ie

June

2010-06-06T14:09:00.003+01:00

What else is on in June? Natural Shocks present a new play by Leo Butler at Project from Wed 9, fresh from a successful run at London’s Finborough Theatre (Critic’s Choice from the Independent on Sunday). In The Early Bird, real life couple Catherine Cusack and Alex Palmer play an ordinary couple whose lives are destroyed when their child disappears, with Butler delving deep into their troubled thoughts and fractured relationship. www.project.ie

Things have been a bit quiet at the Peacock of late but that looks set to change with Outsiders, a new work from economist and commentator David McWilliams previewing from Wed 9 and opening on Wed 16. Directed by Conal Morrison, McWilliams offers a vivid, humorous and uncompromising account of what is going on in Ireland in a show that is part stand up, part discussion, part social observation. www.abbeytheatre.ie

In the Peacock bar on Sat 12 comes the next installment of Werk, brainchild of the funky folk at Thisispopbaby, a late-night haze of neon and performance, live art and discotheque. 10.30pm til late. www.thisispopbaby.com

Flamenco singing sensation Concha Buika is at the NCH on Tue 15. The daughter of political exiles from Equatorial Guinea who grew up in Majorca, her dramatic approach to flamenco fuses the gypsy tradition with elements of jazz and soul. www.improvisedmusic.ie www.nch.ie

Two operas from dlr Glasthule Opera at the Pavilion Theatre from Wed 16-Sun 20, Bizet’s Carmen and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, both featuring up-coming young mezzos – Doreen Curran in the former and Raphaela Mangan in the latter, with acclaimed tenor Anthony Kearns taking on the role of Don Jose in Carmen. www.paviliontheatre.ie

Paris-based pianist Ivan Illic is at the NCH on Fri 18 for a lunchtime recital of Brahms, Chopin/Godowsky, Duparc and Chausson. On his now annual visit to Dublin Illic continues his survey of the Chopin Etudes in Godowsky’s challenging versions, and also premieres songs by Duparc and Chausson which he has transcribed for piano. www.nch.ie www.ivancdg.com

Christy Moore heads up a concert of performances and readings at the NCH on Sat 19 to celebrate the 65th birthday of incarcerated Burmese activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Freewoman of Dublin Aung San Suu Kyi. Organised by Keith Donald of Moving hearts, among those taking part are Eamon Dunphy, Marian Finucane, Damian Gorman, the Dublin Gospel Choir, Fiachra Trench, Carmel McCreagh, Deirdre Purcell, Brendan Graham, Niall Toner and Noel Eccles. www.nch.ie

Music in Great Irish Houses

2010-06-06T14:06:00.002+01:00

Happy 40th birthday to the KBC Music in Great Irish Houses Festival which brings world-class Irish and international chamber musicians to historic and stately venues around the country. Great music in great surroundings is the order of the day, and this year’s festival which runs from Sat 12-Sun 19 June kicks off in Castletown House with highly regarded French ensemble Quatuor Ebene playing Mozart Bartok and Debussy, who the following evening morph into l’Autre Ebene and play jazz, pop and film music at the Sugar Club. Beaulieu House in Drogheda is the venue for Latvian violinist Baiba Skride and Danish cellist Jan Vogler playing Bach, Handel and Ravel on Sun 13, and the following day they too morph into the Skride/Vogler Trio playing Beethoven, Shostakovich and Brahms at Killruddery. Mahler, Schumann and Brahms from the renowned German Fauré Quartet at Killruddery on Tue 15; Brahms and Beethoven from violinist extraordinaire Arabella Steinbacher and pianist Robert Kulek at the National Gallery on Wed 16; tenor Robin Tritschler and acclaimed British pianist Simon Lepper with music for voice and piano by Brahms, Britten, Bax and Schumann at Emo Court on Thur 17; music for two pianos from 2 of our best known pianists Hugh Tinney and Finghin Collins at the RDS on Fri 18; and winding everything up back at Castletown on Sat 19, the award-winning Quatuor Ysaye playing Haydn, Brahms and Schumann. www.musicgreatirishhouses.com

Arcadia

2010-06-03T14:54:00.001+01:00

This is a terrific piece of theatre. Tom Stoppard is such a clever writer, and he packs so much wit and intelligence into this play that it is a pleasure from start to finish. It’s a complicated story and you do need to keep your wits about you – some of it is of the blink and you miss it variety (or get distracted by your neighbour’s mobile phone and you miss it – what part of ‘please turn your mobile completely off’ do they not understand?) but the necessity of a bit of mental agility just adds to its appeal. A difficult play to describe, it’s set in a country house in Derbyshire where two groups of people, separated by nearly 200 years, set out to unravel some of the many puzzles that life throws at us. Love and lust, mystery and intrigue, science and poetry, wild hilarity and gentle tragedy – what more could you want? Well, a decent production, actually, and that’s exactly what director Patrick Mason gives us. Beautifully paced and perfectly cast, this is a real winner – highly recommended. (And did you know, student tickets are a mere €15 Mon-Thur) Until Sat 10 July. www.gate-theatre.ie

Sundays @ Noon

2010-06-03T12:32:00.003+01:00

Brahms and Clara Schumann share the stage at the Hugh Lane Gallery on Sun 6 June when the Riverrun Piano Quartet (violin, viola, cello & piano) continue their occasional series surveying the piano quartets of Brahms. Legendary jazz pianist Simon Nabatov performs a solo shown on Sun 13; on Sun 20 Belfast-born pianist Michael McHale plays works by Brahms, Ian Wilson and Rachmaninov; and on Sun 27 Fionnuala Moynihan gives the final recital in her complete Mozart Piano Sonatas series. 12 noon, admission free. www.hughlane.ie

Pipeworks & Resurgam

2010-06-03T12:20:00.000+01:00

There’s organ music to beat the band on Sat 5 June when Pipeworks present a one day Organ Marathon at Christ Church and St Patrick’s Cathedrals as a fundraiser for next year’s festival. Later in the day (6.30pm) Pipeworks team up with Resurgam choir at St Patrick’s for a concert of music written for Corpus Christi spanning the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries. Motets by Byrd and Tallis contrast with the exuberance of Victoria, then later works by Fauré, Roger-Ducasse and Messiaen, and finally Gerald Finzi’s 1946 anthem Lo the Full Final Sacrifice for organ and choir. Soloists are harpist Fiona Arnold and organist David Leigh. www.pipeworksfestival.com

Cirque de Legume

2010-06-02T09:16:00.002+01:00

Winner of the Bewley’s Café Theatre award at last year’s Fringe, this is a lot of fun, though if you don’t like onion, be warned, there’s a lot of it flying around at the end of the show. Jamie Carswell and Nancy Trotter are 2 hapless red-nose clowns on a mission to create circus out of a box of old veg. How about that, they mumble, as a lettuce barks and slobbers like a dog, or a pair of leeks whip up the antics of a prancing dressage pony. Who would ever have suspected the cutting edge of a red chilli or the hypnotic powers of a beetroot, not too mention the decidedly risqué revelations at the heart of an onion. Some delightful slapstick, though there is the occasional longueur, and it’s all accompanied by a hearty vegetable soup. Lunchtime @Bewleys until Sat 12 June. www.bewleyscafetheatre.com

The Importance of Being Earnest

2010-05-31T12:22:00.005+01:00

Rough Magic at the Gaiety – it might seem an unusual venue for the magicians but they’ve actually been there before, and with another play by Oscar Wilde – Lady Windermere’s Fan, a very stylish black and white affair, back in 1994. What’s unusual about their latest production, The Importance of Being Earnest, is the sprinkling of Hollywood stardust in the shape of Stockard Channing, Tony and Emmy award winner and probably best known for her performances in The West Wing and Grease. Channing takes on the role of the formidable Lady Bracknell, and everyone will no doubt be waiting with bated breath for her utterance of those two memorable words: “A Handbag?” Joining her on stage will be a cast of Rough Magic regulars including Rory Keenan, Rory Nolan, Aoife Duffin, Gemma Reeves, Peter Daly, Darragh Kelly, Eleanor Methven and Arthur Riordan. Lynne Parker directs. Previews from Wed 2 June and opens on Tue 8. www.roughmagic.ie

Dublin Writers Festival

2010-05-31T11:20:00.001+01:00

This year’s Dublin Writers Festival is about to kick off, with 6 days jammed full of literary-related events from Tue 1 to Sun 6 June. Over 40 writers are taking part including the likes of Antony Beevor (Stalingrad), Hanif Kurieshi (My Beautiful Launderette), Yann Martel (The Life of Pi) and the multi award-winning Ian McEwan, who goes head to head with 1960’s counter-culture icon Stewart Brand on the issue of global warming. Major Irish writers include Tom Murphy and Jennifer Johnston, both celebrating significant birthdays this year, and also in birthday mode is The Gallery Press, throwing a bit of a poetry party at the Abbey on the final day. Paul Brady and Neil Hannon explore the art of song writing and there’s discussions on the new feminism, that tricky second novel, Irish language travel literature and even a bilingual multimedia event. Check it all out@ www.dublinwritersfestival.com

NewSoundWorlds

2010-05-31T11:01:00.000+01:00

There’s another chance to hear New York based pianist Isabelle O’ Connell at the NCH’s Kevin Barry Room on Tue 1 June as part of the NewSoundWorlds series. One of the ash cloud casualties that now seem so last month, she’ll be getting to grips with Book 1 of George Crumb’s masterful Makrokosmos, written in 1972 to explore the sonic possibilities of the piano. In what looks like a really interesting programme there's also pieces by Ken Steen, Terry Winter, Henry Cowell and James Mobberley. www.nch.ie

Dawn Chorus

2010-05-29T14:15:00.002+01:00

Here’s one for early birds. You can join the dawn chorus at the Clontarf causeway on Dollymount Strand at 7am tomorrow (Sun) morning as part of the Bealtaine festival. Sing your heart out in solidarity with Active Retirement groups all around the coast. www.bealtaine.com

Feldman Festival

2010-05-28T17:00:00.000+01:00

The music of American composer Morton Feldman takes centre stage at IMMA on Sun 30 May as part of the current exhibition Vertical Thoughts: Morton Feldman and the Visual Arts. In their first ever collaboration, Crash Ensemble and the National Chamber Choir perform Feldman’s Rothko Chapel, a tribute to his close friend the artist Mark Rothko. Feldman described the piece thus: ‘Rothko's imagery goes right to the edge of his canvas, and I wanted the same effect with the music… the sound is closer, more physically with you than in a concert hall.’ Crash also join forces with actors Barry McGovern and Owen Roe in a rare performance of Words and Music, Samuel Beckett’s 1961 radio play which was scored by Feldman in 1985. www.crashensemble.com

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba

2010-05-27T12:38:00.000+01:00

Music from Mali at the Button Factory on Fri 28 May courtesy of the Improvised Music Company. Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba between them feature no less than 4 ngoni, the percussive 4-stringed lute that later evolved into the banjo, along with vocals, calabash and percussion. The virtuosic Bassekou Kouyate has done his time with the late Ali Farka Toure, and for the past decade with Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra, while his wife Ami Sacko on vocals has been described as the Tina Turner of Bamako. Add in Ngoni Ba, hugely popular in Mali, with two critically acclaimed CDs and a reputation for a killer live show. ‘Disco ngoni through a Fender amp, how cool can you get?!’ says Ian Anderson of Froots. www.improvisedmusic.ie

Bookworms

2010-05-27T12:14:00.001+01:00

Previewing at the Abbey right now and opening on Tue 1 June is the world premiere of a new play by Bernard Farrell – his 21st play, and the 11th to premiere at the Abbey. Farrell is a popular playwright with a light comic touch, whose plays inhabit the thorny territory of suburban middle-class angst – everything from self-help groups to aging parents – and in this latest work he turns his attention to the perennial pleasures and competitive tyrannies of the bookclub. Bookworms is directed by Jim Culleton with a cast that includes Deirdre Donnelly, Phelim Drew, Louis Lovett and Marion O’Dwyer, and among the creative team is fight director Paul Burke, so expect sparks to fly. www.abbeytheatre.ie

Sundays @ Noon

2010-05-21T11:11:00.000+01:00

Free lunchtime music coming up at the Hugh Lane Gallery: On Sun 23 May Fionnuala Moynihan continues her chronological survey of the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas, playing No 12 in F, No 13 in Bflat and No 14 in C minor. On Sun 30 you can hear Bach’s Goldberg Variations arranged for String Trio by Dmitri Sitkovetsky, performed by Mia Cooper on violin, John Lynch on viola and Sarah McMahon on cello. www.hughlane.ie

Iron in Smithfield

2010-05-21T11:03:00.000+01:00

A new arts space in a Nama building? Well, every cloud has a silver lining. The building in question is Block C on Smithfield Square, now renamed The Complex and with its own resident theatre company Complex Productions. Already with one production under their belt, last year’s site-specific Complexity, their latest show, which runs til Sat 5 June is the Irish premiere of Rona Munro’s Broadway success Iron, directed by Vanessa Fielding. In this taut psychological thriller, a woman serving life for murdering her husband is reunited with her adult daughter, but things turn nasty when the daughter decides to get her mother’s case re-opened. www.thecomplex.ie

Arcadia

2010-05-21T10:47:00.002+01:00

Tom Stoppard’s multi-award winning comedy Arcadia has just started previews at the Gate. Cleverly fusing past and present, the thrills of a gripping literary detective story in a tale of mystery and love make this play, first staged in 1993 with a cast that included Rufus Sewell, Felicity Kendal and Bill Nighy, something of a masterpiece. This time around Ingrid Craigie heads the cast, with Patrick Mason directing. www.gate-theatre.ie