Years ago, as a boy scout the motto Bí Ullamh was drilled into me. It’s the Irish for “be prepared” and although it didn’t turn me into a overly cautious fretter who couldn’t leave home without a pen-knife, waterproofs and matches in a Ziploc bag, it did make me aware that anything can happen. And it...
Sixteen years ago, the mention of cosy homesteads, happy maidens and athletic youth was greeted with hoots of smug derision during David Bolger’s dance Reel Luck . Last Saturday night, the audience at Bolger’s latest work, Touch Me , listened to De Valera’s “The Ireland that we dreamed of” speech with a touch more sober reflection. As...
You are what you pay when it comes to theatre seats: whether scrimping to afford a squinty seat in the gods, or splashing out so you can lord it in a plush box. The Irish dance company Fitzgerald Stapleton, have transformed the tiny Project Cube into similar slices of social coding, with ticket prices labelled...
AUDREY HEPBURN, Brigitte Bardot, Andy Warhol, Twiggy and Diana Ross were some of the inspirations for Beyoncé’s music recent video Countdown . But two contemporary dance works by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker provided more than inspiration: according to the Belgian choreographer they were “plundered”. Immediately identifiable in the music video are movement sequences, costumes, camera...
Throwing off constraints is one thing; using new-found freedom is another. The personal histories revealed by the cast of Gardenia – both in the programme notes and on-stage – consist of meandering journeys to a comfort- able acceptance of who they. But the nine performers, including seven transvestites and transsexuals in their 50s and 60s,...
Sean Ó Riada’s importance within the Irish cultural landscape is under continuous debate. There might be consensus that he brought Irish traditional music from the margins through arrangements for his group Ceoltóirí Chualann, orchestrations for film scores like Mise Éire and Saoirse? and radio broadcasts for Radio Éireann. But there’s bitter divisiveness over the importance...
In my job, heroes are like buses: you spend a long time waiting for one to come along and then two arrive at the same time. This was the case a couple of weeks ago when I played a Beethoven concert with the fabulous pianist Lang Lang on a Thursday night and then rehearsed the following...
The company might be called 50% Male Experimental Theatre, but Seekers is a pretty conventional piece of physical theatre. Examining our hectic lifestyles and constant quest for happiness, six performers of mixed-abilities present highly gestural and stylised movement, like miming winding watches or running on the spot to illustrate our time-starved existence. read more...
When we meet Gina Devine she tells us that dance is an escape into fantasy and self-delusion. As a child, she watched her mother’s furtive sways to Bruce Springsteen over the kitchen sink and dreamt of happiness and fame. Now that she is a mother and surrounded by abusive males and bitchy females, she wants...
September is here, so it’s time to get cracking on study plans and reading lists. Of course, the end of summer also means the end of summer beach reading, indulging in those novels with a strong narrative that drag you effortlessly from page to page as you laze in the sun. A great standby is...
Maybe it’s because of my day-job, but you’ll never find me with a pen in my hand if I’m reading a book. Playing every day in an orchestra means a large turnover of music with new pieces to be learnt quickly: our usual format is two days rehearsal and then a concert, although we can...
IN 1963 THE ARTS COUNCIL made a decision that defined not only Irish ballet’s future but also its past. Faced with the prospect of funding two ballet companies, Joan Denise Moriarty’s Cork-based Irish Theatre Ballet and Patricia Ryan’s Dublin-based National Ballet School and Company, the council opted to amalgamate them into a new, Dublin-based company,...
