Event of the week
Kilkenny Arts Festival
Thursday, August 10th-Sunday, August 20th; various venues/times/prices; kilkennyarts.ie
Lights, action, sound – it’s a harmonised clarion call for yet another jam-packed arts festival featuring theatre, visual art, music, dance, poetry, and classical music. Highlights include a song cycle based on Seamus Heaney’s poem Sweeney Astray (featuring narration by actor Ciarán Hinds and vocals from Iarla Ó Lionáird); the Rollercoaster Sessions (including Katie Kim, Elaine Howley, and Josienne Clarke); public interviews (Nicole Flattery, Liz Nugent); traditional music/dance (Aoife Ní Bhriain and Colin Dunne); a major visual art exhibition, The Art of Sport (which includes work by Dorothy Cross, Louis le Brocquy, Tony O’Shea, Amelia Stein); Cuban viola da gamba virtuoso Lixsania Fernández; and Radiohead drummer Philip Selway with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. Full details from the festival website.
Gigs
Pierce Turner
Saturday, August 5th, Backroom at McCrory’s, Culdaff, Co Donegal; 8pm; €20; mcgrorys.ie
Pierce Turner returns to Ireland from his other place of residence in New York City (where he recently completed a spate of shows with Tony Shanahan, musical director for Patti Smith), for a couple of rare intimate gigs. Focusing on his latest album, Terrible Good, Turner promises shows with a difference as he performs with just guitar and cello. Later on this month, on Saturday, August 19th, the agile songwriter/musician plays an almost-secret show (dubbed Pierce’s Picnic) in Castlebridge, close to his hometown of Wexford. Visit brownpapertickets.com for full details of this gig and, crucially, the directions to it.
Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann
Sunday, August 6th-Monday, August 14th, Mullingar, Co Westmeath; various venues/times/prices; fleadhcheoil.ie
Hundreds of thousands will be flocking to Mullingar for the return of Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, during which people from every Irish-centric nook and cranny of the globe will be competing through song, music and dance. Alongside the street performers (ostensibly casual but also committed), the week’s entertainment will include a gig rig, with live shows from Seán Keane, Dervish, The Fureys, Four Men and a Dog, Emmet Cahill and Enda Scahill.
Jack Botts
Tuesday, August 8th, Whelan’s Upstairs, Dublin, 8pm; €15.90; ticketmaster.ie
The millennial hordes will have seen Australian singer-songwriter Jack Botts play his heart out a few days previously at Indiependence, but he is remaining in Ireland to play a rather more intimate show. The creative focus is on the Brisbane man’s debut album, Sucker for Sunsets, which features a range of amiable, acoustic indie pop/folk tunes populated with positive, earnest lyrics. Not for Lou Reed fans, then, but anyone with a hankering for what remains of the summer might just be swayed.
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Film
Boyne Valley Film Festival
From Friday, August 11th to Sunday, August 13th, Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, Co Louth; various times/prices/€25 (season ticket); droichead.com
It’s good to see provincial film festivals making their presence felt through the work of established and emerging filmmakers. This three-day event returns for a second year and is curated by Colette Farrell, director of Droichead Arts Centre, and Drogheda-born independent filmmaker, Frank W Kelly. Its programme is crammed with quality short films from the locality, Ireland and beyond, as well as important sidebar events such as the Basics of Screenwriting, with Academy Award-nominee Naomi Sheridan. Keep an eye out for the eerie Lamb, featuring hot-button Irish actor, Éanna Hardwicke, and the laugh-out-loud dramedy, Burn it All, featuring Toni O’Rourke and Deirdre O’Kane. Full details on Droichead Arts Centre website.
Comedy
Craic Den
Thursday, August 10th/Friday, August 11th/Saturday, August 12th, Workman’s Club (Vintage Room), Dublin; 8pm; €15/€12; craicdencomedyclub.com
Small capacity comedy clubs continue to operate if not exactly thrive in Ireland, and one of the better ventures is Craic Den, which has been on the go for some time. The best aspects of clubs such as this include headline guest spots by established comedy acts that road test material in the lead-up to gigs in larger venues. One such comedian is bona fide maverick mirth maker David McSavage, who performs here across three nights prior to his show at Dublin’s 3Olympia Theatre on Wednesday, October 11th. Other wit-nits include Joe Rooney, Damo Clark and Patser Murray.
Stage
Bedbound
From Tuesday, August 8th to Saturday, August 12th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin; 7pm; from €26.50; ticketmaster.ie
We don’t think a father/offspring combination has taken place on Irish stages since the Gleeson family bounced onto the boards in a 2015 production of The Walworth Farce (written, incidentally, by Bedbound’s creator, Enda Walsh). Colm Meaney and his daughter, Brenda, play Father and Daughter, each of whom are confined to a room – arrogant salesman Father in an off-the-rack suit, stationary Daughter flitting in and out of storytelling in an attempt to retrace her relationship with her mother. You might need to keep up to speed with the density of the dialogue, but a compelling theatre experience awaits, nonetheless.
Visual art
Artistic Soul of the Midlands
Until Saturday, September 2nd, Anam Gallery, Roscommon town, Co Roscommon; adm free
A new art gallery is always a good reason to pop the corks, and Anam Gallery – the brainchild of artist Rita Oates – looks set to take its place as a new base for artistic Irish talent, established and up-and-coming, to showcase their work. The inaugural exhibition features work by Oates, Joe Caslin and Una Bourke.
Still running
All Together Now
Until Sunday, August 6th; Curraghmore Estate, Co Waterford; 1pm; €235; ticketmaster.ie
The fourth outing of this superb multi-stranded music and culture festival concludes this weekend with a belter of a line-up featuring many Irish artists and a handful of international names. And don’t forget the culture conversations section, All Curious Minds, which always generates a surprise or three. Pray the sun shines!
Book it this week
Dublin Theatre Festival, September 28th-October 15th; dublintheatrefestival.ie
Bush Tetras, Whelan’s, Dublin; November 1st; ticketmaster.ie
Iris Dement, Vicar Street, Dublin; October 28th; ticketmaster.ie
Rick Astley, 3Arena, Dublin; March 5th; ticketmaster.ie
