The House Keeper

Busy times for Rough Magic, what with Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite at the Gaiety in February, Arthur Riordan’s Improbable Frequency at the same venue in March, and now the world premiere of The House Keeper, a new play by Morna Regan which previews at Project from 19 April and opens on Tue 24. Light-hearted comedy is put on the back burner in this psychological thriller, a darkly humorous drama exploring the nature of possession, entitlement and inheritance. Directed by Lynne Parker and featuring Cathy Belton, Ingrid Craigie and Robert O’Mahoney, it follows the plight of a desperate young woman who, threatened with homelessness, breaks into the house of a wealthy woman, but before long realises that she has disturbed a hornet’s nest of unimagined proportions. Runs til 12 May. www.roughmagic.ie www.projectartscentre.ie

Turn Around @ Project

ABSOLUT Fringe and Project Arts Centre are teaming up for Turn Around, a season of previous Fringe favourites performed in repertory over a 3 week stretch with a diverse line up of theatre, dance, puppetry, spoken word and music-theatre dating from 2009-2011. So you get a second chance to see Ger Clancy’s Waterworn, puppets, projections and live music in a captivating story inspired by Hemmingway and Moby Dick; The Spinner, a delicate yet ruthless dance piece performed by DISH, an exciting group of emerging international dance artists; Threshold, originally When Irish Hearts are Praying a darkly comic, intense and gritty play in a newly revised production; Three Men Talking About Things They Kinda Know About by performance poets Colm Keegan, Kalle Ryan and Stephen James Smith, talking life, love and feelings – different histories, same shit; and Brian Fleming’s Gis a Shot of Your Bongos Mister, the world through a drummer's ears from inner city Dublin to the suburbs of Senegal. Runs at Project from 12- 28 April, and you can buy all 5 shows for just 50 quid, which seems like a bargain. www.projectartscentre.ie

Pan Pan: A Doll House

Pan Pan follow the huge success of The Rehearsal: Playing the Dane and Beckett’s All That Fall with A Doll House, a new take on the Henrik Ibsen classic, and given that it’s Pan Pan you can expect the unexpected. Director Gavin Quinn says: ‘Pan Pan's new version of Ibsen's A Doll House, (the world's first great prose drama which at the time exploded like a bomb into contemporary life) will be the opening show of the ‘new’ Smock Alley Theatre. Smock Alley was originally a theatre in the 17th century and hosted the Irish Premiere of Hamlet. This version of A Doll House will examine the like- and unlike-ability of these famous Ibsen characters and how they can still connect to today's supposedly restless age.’ Design is by Aedín Cosgrove, costumes by Bruno Schwengl and the fine cast includes Áine Ní Mhuirí, Charlie Bonner, Daniel Reardon, Dermot Magennis, Judith Roddy and Pauline Hutton. Previews until Mon 9 and runs from 10 -28 April. www.panpantheatre.com

More Musical

Next up is Alice in Funderland, brainchild of the ever-energetic thisispopbaby, which has just begun previews at the Abbey and opens on Wed 4 April. Directed by Wayne Jordan, the first musical to be produced at the Abbey in over 20 years is a big show fielding a 15-strong cast, with book and lyrics by Phillip McMahon, music by Raymond Scannell, and choreography by Liz Roche’. Inspired by both the Lewis Carroll classic and the cadence and rhythm of Irish city life, this combination of biting social and sexual satire, contemporary musical numbers, rich language, high design and a philosophy of hope and courage is a modern day fairy tale for a tender and bruised nation: ‘Unlucky in love, Corkonian Alice is all set for her sister’s wedding when a chance encounter with delivery boy Warren sends her spiralling through the Dublin night. In an epic pursuit for meaning on the strangest night of her life, Alice tumbles through the broken city, bombarded by grinning politicians, pyjama-clad bowsies, egg heads on the edge, twisted scissor sisters, and Delores – The Queen of Hartstown.’

And there's something really special at the Abbey on Mon 9 April when legendary artists Patti Smith and Sam Shepard get together for an intimate evening of readings and music.

www.abbeytheatre.ie

Theatre

So what’s in the air theatre-wise these days? Music, that’s what, with not one but two Irish musicals taking to the stage. Rough Magic revive their delightful show Improbable Frequency at the Gaiety until 24 Mar. An unlikely (improbable?) hit when first staged back in 2004, this delicious satire on our beloved neutrality from writer Arthur Riordan and composers Bell Helicopter is set in Dublin during the Second World War. Teaming with intrigue and subterfuge, and performed almost entirely in rhyming couplets, the terrific cast of six sing and dance their way through a storyline that brings together John Betjeman, Myles na gCopaleen, Schrodinger, the Hun-loving IRA and a couple of cruciverbalist spies. www.roughmagic.ie

The Making of ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore

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

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

Spooky

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

Absolut Fringe

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

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!

Translations

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 29 June. www.abbeytheatre.ie

Short & Sweet

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

Honest

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

Lay Me Down Softly

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

I'm A Celebrity

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 Abbey Habit

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

November November

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

Big Ole Piece of Cake

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

Guna Nua

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

A Dream Play

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