The best of what’s on this week (2024)

Theatre review: My Real Life
“Right up to my diagnosis I was waiting for my real life to begin,” Noel (Don Wycherley) tells us in this shocking play by Eoin Colfer. Over 75 minutes, we watch Noel assessing his past and take an overdose of sleeping pills, his spirit finally broken by his failing body and a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. This monologue is a sort of Noel’s Last Tape, to riff on Samuel Beckett’s memory classic. We, the audience, witness Noel as he records his last will and testament along with a message to his pal Richard, who is to deliver the eulogy. In 2013, the case of multiple sclerosis sufferer Marie Fleming sparked a debate about the quality of life of someone who has a degenerative illness. This script by Colfer represents theatre tackling what it does best: attempting to fathom the maze of overwhelming emotions that can lead to the option of last resort. But the strength of this production, directed by Ben Barnes, pivots not so much on the writing as the powerfully touching, mood-shifting performance by Wycherley. He flips self-pity into a funny but sad reflection on the loneliness of a despairing man shattered by his regret-filled past.

Fiona Charleton
Viking Theatre, Clontarf, Mon-Sat 8pm, €15; vikingtheatredublin.com

THEATRE

Rosie’s Picture
Loss, guilt, regret and relationships are some of the familiar themes explored in this tragicomic drama written and directed by Mike O’Dowd. Staged by Head Cha La theatre company, the thought-provoking work revolves around the seemingly tortured musings of a character called Pa (played by Kevin McCormack), whose deceased partner’s final words play over and over in his brain.
Cork Arts Theatre, Thu-Sat 8pm, €10-€12 corkartstheatre.com

Shirley Valentine
Pauline Collins shone as the bored Liverpool housewife who heads to Greece to find herself — and possible romance — in Lewis Gilbert’s heart-warming 1989 film adaptation of Willy Russell’s play. Inhabiting the role here is Belfast’s Tara Lynne O’Neill, who sparkled in Derry Girls and has featured in The Fall and Fair City. “Gone to Greece, back in two weeks” reads the handwritten note she leaves on the kitchen table before jetting off to the Mediterranean — but things turn out rather differently. Patrick J O’Reilly directs.
Lyric, Belfast, Sat & Sun 7.30pm (then Sept 10-Oct 5), £12-£28 lyrictheatre.co.uk

A Sacred Thing
“The characters have so much heart, conviction, integrity and, ultimately, conscience” was one audience member’s view of a previous production of this charged courtroom drama by Laurence Power. Based around race riots in Columbia, Tennessee, in 1946, the play blends elements of To Kill a Mockingbird and 12 Angry Men, as an all-white jury decides the fate of an African-American naval veteran who was involved in a fracas that led to violence against Columbia’s black community.
Mill Theatre, Dundrum, Fri & Sat 8pm, €18-€20 milltheatre.ie

Conversations on a Homecoming
Tom Murphy’s naturalistic masterpiece premiered in 1985, and this adaptation is presented by the Breffni Players, a long-standing troupe from Carrick-on-Shannon. Like Jimmy Murphy’s The Kings of the Kilburn High Road, the darkly redemptive work is set in a pub as a group of old friends meet after a long absence, musing on the faded idealism of their youth and the harsh, unfulfilled reality of their lives. The one-act play is directed by Sinead Quinn.
The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon, Tue-Sat 8pm, €18 thedock.ie

POP

Electric Picnic
Ireland’s original boutique festival felt hip and trendy when it was first staged in the mid-2000s and, although it seems less fresh now, its array of acts remains pleasingly diverse. Next weekend’s environmentally attuned behemoth — attendees have been asked to wear biodegradable glitter and hire pre-pitched tents — features Echo and the Bunnymen alongside Jarvis co*cker, designed to appeal to ageing musos. Headliners Florence and the Machine, Hozier and the 1975 have universal appeal, while newer bands that should rock young attendees’ boats include Inhaler, Fangclub and Powpig. Dance artists such as DJ Seinfeld and punk poet Jinx Lennon add to the eclectic feel. A self-consciously cool Global Green eco-village will brim with activists, artists, musicians, foodies and bards.
Stradbally Hall, Co Laois, Fri-Sun, €260 electricpicnic.ie

Lisdoonvarna Rock Weekend
The annual matchmaking festival (Aug 30-Sept 29) kicks off with this two-day rock and pop hooley and a reliable — if not hugely thrilling — array of Irish bands. Hermitage Green and the Riptide Movement perform on Friday evening, while the Stunning will be Saturday’s headline act. The Lisdoonvarna Country Weekend takes place the following Friday and Saturday, with Mike Denver, Cliona Hagan and Derek Ryan among the usual suspects.
Marquee, Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare, Fri-Sat 7pm, €33-€55 0818 719 300

Gilbert O’Sullivan
The Waterford-born veteran was one of the biggest stars of the early 1970s, despite his pudding-bowl haircut, thanks to bittersweet hits such as Clair and Get Down. The trend-averse, piano-playing balladeer will revisit such old favourites but also perform new songs in these two gigs.
Royal Theatre, Castlebar, Sat 8pm; Cork Opera House, Tue Sept 3, 8pm; both €45 0818 719 300

The Faim
This Perth band — named after the French word for hunger — began playing together while in high school. They mix indie rock with jazz and pop-punk to create a distinctive sound that betrays elements of the 1975 and Metallica. Consisting of Josh Raven, Stephen Beerkens, Samuel Tye and Linden Marrisen, the four-piece will release their debut album State of Mind next month.
Academy 2, Dublin, Tue 7pm, €13 0818 719 300; Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast, Wed 7pm, £14.50 0844 277 4455

Shooter Jennings
After gigs in Warsaw, Cologne and London, the Tennessee alt-country star Jennings, son of country legends Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, tours his self-titled latest album to Dublin. The singer-songwriter’s vast back catalogue includes experimental works informed by myriad genres, but his new collection is a determinedly old-school country record in which Jennings sings about growing up, going out, getting old and getting thrashed. “I wanted to do something straight and simple,” he explains, and this clearly extends to his song titles which include Fast Horses & Good Hideouts, and I’m Wild & My Woman Is Crazy.
Whelan’s, Dublin, Fri 8pm, €18.50 1890 200 078

Art review: Bauhaus 100: The Print Portfolios

The gloom in the National Gallery print rooms suits these four remarkable portfolios of early Bauhaus prints, made between 1922 and 1924. To mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the German art school, the gallery has borrowed the portfolios from the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. The vitality and variety is startling, as curator Niamh MacNally’s excellent wall-texts knit together the lives of the 45 artists against a backdrop of multiple artistic and political movements. Some endured the horrors of the First World War, but most were classified as degenerate by the Nazis, their works derided in the 1937 Entartete Kunst show. Big names abound, including Bauhaus teachers Paul Klee and Kandinsky; and there are exquisite pieces donated by invited artists Chagall, Kokoschka and de Chirico. We see great Russian work such as by Natalia Goncharova, plus Grosz’s grotesques of the Weimar bourgeoisie. The Bauhaus artists were mostly pacifist, progressive utopians but Prampolini, a futurist, later worked on the initial design of the Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution in Rome in 1932. It’s satisfying to sample the Europe-wide Bauhaus art network before the later industrial designs.

Mic Moroney
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, until Dec 1; nationalgallery.ie

ART

Toraí Beo
“Time on Tory weaves and leaps from day to century to week to year; a conducive space then to make art,” we’re told in An Grianan’s blurb for this group show of Tory Island painters’ work. The remote settlement off the Donegal coast has became synonymous with “primitive” painting since the arrival of the English artist Derek Hill in the late 1950s, but this exhibition doesn’t limit itself to that tradition. Showing off the island’s various artistic styles, it includes works by Anton Meenan, Micky John Rogers, Daniel Cullen, Noreen Meenan, Majella Cullen and others.
An Grianan, Letterkenny, Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm angrianan.com

Skellyworld
This exhibition encourages viewers to delve into the comic creations of a renowned Brooklyn-based cartoonist. It features original drawings from Katie Skelly’s graphic novels such as Night Nurse (2012), Operation Margarine (2014) and My Pretty Vampire (2017), while other compositions are also inspired by science fiction comics and B-movies. This is the first solo exhibition of Skelly’s work, anywhere — a treat for fans of planet-hopping nurses, lustful vampires and Bardot-esque blondes.
Naughton, Belfast, today & Tue-Sat 11am-4pm naughtongallery.org

JAZZ

Paul Dunlea and Cormac McCarthy Duo
Dunlea is a respected Cork-based trombonist, composer and arranger who has collaborated with Michael Bublé and Frankie Valli. Joining forces with him for this gig is the local pianist Cormac McCarthy, whose compositions and arrangements have been recorded by jazz luminaries Phil Woods and Jeff Hamilton.
Triskel, Cork, Sat 1.10pm, €10 triskelartscentre.ie

CLASSICAL

Summer Classics at Ranfurly House
The Ulster Orchestra bids adieu to the summer with a few classical favourites at the historically charged Hill of the O’Neill in Dungannon’s Ranfurly House. The accessible programme includes Ennio Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe, Sibelius’s Finlandia and excerpts from Grieg’s Peer Gynt.
Ranfurly House, Dungannon, today 3pm, £15-£18 ulsterorchestra.org.uk

COMEDY

Nick Offerman: All Rise
Best known as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, Offerman takes his All Rise comedy show to Dublin, promising “an evening of deliberative talking and light dance that will compel you to chuckle”.
Vicar Street, Dublin, Sat 8pm, €44-€50.65 vicarstreet.com