Talking the Talk

It doesn’t have quite the cachet of a masked ball, but it sounds like an intriguing event nonetheless. Culture and the City – the Debate is an initiative of Temple Bar Cultural Trust and Exchange Dublin, calling on citizens, funders, public representatives, artists and other interested parties to ponder the question Is This City Fit For Purpose?, exploring among other things issues such as control and regulation of space. People are being invited to leave their associations behind and speak as individuals, with the requirement for everyone to wear white upper face masks providing a degree of anonymity (and a theatrical frisson) in a city where everyone tends to know everyone else. It’s all happening on Wed 19 Aug @6.30pm in Meeting House Square, which will don a tented roof for the occasion. Masks available on entry. www.templebar.ie

Festival of World Cultures

Although this year’s Festival of World Cultures is only a two-day event, there’s a brilliant line-up for that precious last weekend in August, when Dun Laoghaire becomes the centre of the universe. Highlights include Malian superstar Oumou Sangare, songwriter, social commentator and soul diva, who headlines the free outdoor concert on Sun 30; the mystical Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan; French chanteuse and social campaigner Jane Birkin (forever associated with the heavy breathing of ‘Je t’aime’) singing from her new album ‘Enfants d’hiver’; spiritual mystic and Sufi devotional singer, Sain Zahoor; Nick Page’s Dub Colossus, a sultry blend of traditional Ethiopian music with ethiojazz and club reggae featuring some of Ethiopia’s finest musicians; the intensively percussive Les Tambours de Brazza; and the amazing Warsaw Village Band, making their second visit to the Festival. Lots of these concerts are free, and as if that wasn’t enough, there’s a rake of food fairs, art exhibitions, workshops and cultural demonstrations, the always lively Festival Club, and a Bollywood Disco as part of this year’s Mela. www.festivalofworldcultures.com

Silver Lining

As somebody famous once said, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, so let’s not talk about the weather any more. There’s plenty of silver linings about and la load of stuff to look forward to, so read on.

Bewleys

Things are hotting up at Bewleys where singer Susannah De Wrixon has teamed up with pianist Conor Linehan for a lunchtime cabaret show that rejoices in the many facets of the female psyche, with music from the likes of Benjamin Britten to Noel Coward, Stephen Sondheim, Randy Newman and Suzanne Vega. Nighttime shows in Aug include Honor Heffernan, a 130^th Birthday tribute to the Ukulele courtesy of the Sick & Indigent Song Club, and world/jazz music from Francesco Turrisi. www.bewleyscafetheatre.com

Deafening!

The folks at Dublin Electronic Arts Festival aren’t taking any chances with the weather when they set up their DEAF Fundraiser in Meeting House Square on Fri 21 Aug (6pm). Not only will there be a full bar but the whole shebang will take place under a temporary roof, so you can leave your brollies at home. A spicy line-up includes The Jimmy Cake, Dark Room Notes, Boxcutter, Spilly Walker, Channel One, Thread Pulls, Sarsparilla and Patrick Kelleher & his Cold Dead Hands, all playing for free, and with tickets at only a tenner that’s a mere €1.25 per band. The festival proper runs from Thur 22 to Sat 31 Oct. www.deafireland.com

The Poor Mouth

There’s something weird and wonderful happening right now at the New Theatre, where Musiclee are reviving their award-winning adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s The Poor Mouth, first staged at the long gone An Beal Bocht pub back in 1989. If you think things are bad right now, spare a thought for the recession-ridden inhabitants of Corkadoragha, a miserable hole on the western seaboard long long ago. A mad comedy in two surreal acts, it features Paul Lee (who wrote the adaptation) as the Ould Grey Fella and Ciaran Kenny as Bonapart O Loonassa. Also at the New Theatre, from 24 Aug a celebration of New Writing includes Epilogue by Jane McCarthy and Shafted by Arnold Thomas Fanning. www.thenewtheatre.com

Opera in the Open

Treat yourself to a blast of free Opera at the Civic Offices Amphitheatre at lunchtime each Thursday until Sept 3. Presented by Dublin City Council Arts Office, these specially adapted performances include Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel and Mozart’s Idomeneo.

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.