Free Music at Farmleigh

There’s free music again at Farmleigh this summer, courtesy of the OPW and Improvised Music Company. Between Tue 21 July and 11 Aug the Farmleigh Salon Series features composer writer singer Julie Feeney, Manchester born jazz pianist John Taylor, the amazing Martin Hayes & Denis Cahill, and a final night of cultural crossover with Francesco Turrisi's Tarab, a melting pot of Turkish, Mediterranean and Irish music, and Chinese trio The Xi'An Si, performing Irish airs on exotic instruments. Check out www.salonseries.ie for the free ticket lottery.

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

Making Strange are at Project from 9-18 July with The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by New York playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis (a regular collaborator with Philip Seymour Hoffman’s LAByrinth Theatre Company). ‘A gloriously intoxicating brew’ said the Guardian of this passionate and poetic play, set in Downtown Purgatory, where a lawyer who believes in divine mercy above divine justice is appealing Judas Iscariot’s sentence of eternal damnation. Matt Torney directs a large cast that features Mark Lambert, Eleanor Methven, Hilary O’Shaughnessy, Karl Quinn and Megan Riordan among others. www.project.ie

After Miss Julie

The resilient PurpleHeart Theatre Company celebrate their 10^th birthday with the Irish premiere of After Miss Julie at Smock Alley Theatre Studio, previewing from Tue 7 July and opening on Thur 9. This is Patrick Marber’s (of Closer fame) take on the Strindberg classic, updated to a sweltering July in 1945 and relocated to an English country house, where celebrations for the British Labour Party’s landslide election victory are in full swing. Tensions rise and tragedy beckons as Miss Julie hangs out below stairs amid a whirlpool of class suspicion and resentment, sexual desire and repressive social mores, with Marber’s skillful drawing of believable and
psychologically astute characters fleshing out Strindberg’s original. Ronan Leahy directs, and the cast includes Maeve Fitzgerald, Stewart Roche and Fiana Toibin. Runs until Sat 25 July.

Summer in the City

You don’t have to leave town to get into the festive spirit, there’s plenty of fun to be had right here, and lots of it is free. Over 50 world-class circus performers will take to the streets and squares for an expanded Temple Bar Circus Festival (9-12 July), which includes some nifty workshops in Circus Skills, Acrobatics and Clay Animation. Highlights include the comic trapeze and giant balloons of the Loyal Club, Australia’s Von Trolley Quartet with their musical slapstick, eastern European circus phenomenon the Great Vasili’s Eruption, the colourful aerial circus of the Barren Carrousel, and a trip up the Liffey with Brendan Byrne’s Magical Circus Cruise. All shows are free tho some require booking. www.templebar.ie

Tradfest

For some great trad (and other) music in August check out the National Concert Hall where the 10^th ESB BEO Celtic Music Festival runs from 22-29 Aug. Making his NCH debut, singer-songwriter Luka Bloom kicks things off, sharing the stage with stunning Scottish vocalist Eddi Reader, and the following night it’s the turn of Paul Brady who’ll be mixing old favourites with new material as part of his solo Travelin’ Light Tour. The 80-strong Meitheal Orchestra are joined by the inimitable Sharon Shannon for a lunchtime gig on Wed 26, and on Sun 29 you can hear the hugely influentialWaterson Family in what could well be the festival highlight. Ambassadors for British folk music for almost half a century, the extended Waterson Family includes double Mercury Prize nominee Eliza Carthy, her da Martin Carthy, whose settings of traditional songs with guitar have influenced everyone from Dylan to Paul Simon and Billy Bragg, and her mother Norma Waterson – all three played recently as part of Hal Wilmer’s Rogue’s Gallery. www.nch.ie

Farewell to Spiegel

Coming up in September, it’s your last chance to Spiegel at this year’s Dublin Fringe Festival (5-20), because from next year the popular Spiegeltent will be no more – it might have been a lot of fun but it wasn’t really very Fringe. The main Spiegel show as always is La Clique with its heady combination of cabaret, burlesque, circus and contemporary vaudeville. La Clique regulars Captain Frodo, Mario Queen of the Circus, The English Gents, hula-hooper Marawa and bathtub acrobat David O’Mer play alongside lycra-clad opera-singing diva Le Gateau Chocolat and highspeed rollerskating acrobatics The Skating Aratas. www.fringefest.com

Out of Town

Time to spread the wings a bit, as the festival season takes over. Clonmel’s Junction Festival, (4-12 July) has established itself as one of the most inclusive festivals around, remaining faithful to its local base but also definitely worth travelling to (about 2 ½ hrs from Dublin). Making excellent use of empty spaces, one of this year’s innovations is a series of drop-in cafes where you can do everything from entertaining your canine friend to donating your precious baubles to a shrine. A lusty music programme ranges from Delorentos and Duke Special to Martin Hayes & Denis Cahill and Les Espoirs de Coronthie from Guinea Bassau. Other performance highlights include an Aerial Dance double bill and The Angel and the Woodcutter, a haunting folktale from Korea (also playing at the Pavilion in Dun Laoghaire on Sat 11). More info @ www.junctionfestival.com

The big one of course is Galway (13-26 July) which needs no introduction. Suffice it to say the city will be jammed for the likes of Bon Iver, Femi Kuti, Spiritualized, Michael Clark (dance), some riotous Shakespeare from the UK’s Propeller, physical theatre from Australia’s Circa, the Kronos Quartet, the New York Dolls and Booker T. www.galwayartsfestival.com

In August it’s Kilkenny (7-16), with Peter Brook’s take on Shakespearian sonnets, baroque choral ensemble Le Concert Spirituel, Serbian pianist Alexsandar Madzar, writers Garrison Keillor, Seamus Heaney, Eugene McCabe et al, world music from China and West Africa, indie sounds from American band Low and left-field Icelandic group Amiina and a wide range of visual art. www.kilkennyarts.ie. And at the tale-end of the summer (Sat 29 & Sun 30), Dun Laoghaire’s incomparable Festival of World Cultures, of which more anon. www.festivalofworldcultures.com

Benefactors @ Beckett

Rough Magic’s Lynne Parker takes up the director’s reins for the latest offering from B*spoke theatre company, the Irish premiere of Michael Frayn’s Benefactors (Parker previously directed the British playwright's intriguing Copenhagen), which previews at the Samuel Beckett Theatre from tomorrow (Tue 30) and opens on Thur 2 July. A social housing scheme is the focal point for Frayn’s wry take on liberal London do-gooders, as architect David and his sociologist wife Jane set about rehousing the working classes, while also sorting out the lives of their hapless friends Colin and Sheila. Written in 1984, Benefactors received an Olivier for Best New Play and the New York Drama Critics award for Best Foreign Play - it’s an interesting sign of the times that both Bedrock and B*spoke have chosen plays that hark back to the dreaded ‘80s, albeit on opposite sides of the Atlantic. On stage will be some familiar faces including Peter Hanly, Ali White, Jennifer O’Dea and James Wallace. Runs until Sat 18. www.bspoketheatrecompany.com

This Is Our Youth

This latest show from Bedrock (at Project til Sat 27) is definitely worth catching. Written in the 90s (by Ken Lonergan) about the 80s, it’s surprisingly up to the minute, and although it takes a while to get going and is a bit hampered by the small performance space, you’re left with plenty to savour. There’s some really succinct writing and snappy dialogue from Lonergan, who manages to be entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time. The interaction of his three characters – self-obsessed Dennis, restless, awkward Warren and preppy, nihilistic Jessica, spoilt slackers all – creates a much bigger picture, cleverly setting off the shallowness of Dennis against the troubled desperation of Warren, and spiking them both with the seemingly trite, but on reflection quite sharp observations of Jessica.

The first half hour or so is fairly amusing but not exactly riveting, but stick with it, as things really kick off when Jessica appears on the scene. Director Jimmy Fay draws great performances from a well-chosen cast, with Conor Madden’s narcissistic Dennis a truly monstrous creation, Charlie Murphy sparkling as Jessica, and Ciaran O’Brien in particular excelling as the struggling Warren, capturing all the nuances of his painful coming-of-age. www.bedrockproductions.com, www.project.ie

Free Midsummer Fun

Lots of free stuff to do this weekend (see also Street Performance below) with a burst of Midsummer Fun in Temple Bar, as Meeting House Square is transformed into an urban meadow with a carpet of real grass, and the Summer Solstice is celebrated with fire, feasting and film. Events kick off as the sun sets on Sat 20 with the fire dancing and juggling of Brightspark Fire performers, followed by an outdoor screening of Dead Poets Society, beautifully shot and deeply engaging, filmed back in the days when Robin Williams was still bearable. Bring your picnic blanket for Sunday’s Midsummer Fair, when all three outdoor markets will be in full flight. Maypole dancing, magic shows, Punch & Judy, dance-alongs, and music from trad Irish and samba bands, or for something a bit more sedate, local historian Pat Liddy leads a Summer Solstice Walk, leaving Dublin Castle @6pm. You can also catch Music for Midsummer at the Contemporary Music Centre on Sat @6pm. www.templebar.ie