Cuirt International Festival of Literature
Until Sunday, April 25th, free (pay what you can), cuirt.ie
You couldn't have written a stranger story than the epic pandemic tale we've been through over the past year. This year's gathering of writers, poets and thinkers will be hoping to make sense of it all and celebrate the best in fiction and nonfiction writing. This will be a pay-what-you-can event – and it should be worth every penny you can scrape together. A lot's going on between now and Sunday, including:
- The Times Were Grand in Size and We Were Small (Thursday, April 22nd, 8.30pm) In this opening-night gala, the writer Lisa McInerney, the storyteller and writer Oein DeBhairduin, the writer and mental-health advocate Arnold Thomas Fanning, the writer (and TikTok sensation) Una-Minh Kavanagh, the songwriter Maija Sofia and the data scientist and writer Suad Aldarr will look at how the connections we take for granted have been profoundly challenged by the virus, and reflect on how they lost/found/regained connections with others over this strange, disconnected year.
- The Disconnect: Róisín Kiberd with Mary McGill (Friday, April 23rd, 1pm) Sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees or the web for the memes. Róisín Kiberd has a talent for unravelling the confused strands of our online lives and seeing the real picture behind the selfies, tweets, TikTok dances and deepfake videos. As she prepares to launch her essay collection The Disconnect, Kiberd talks with the journalist and digital-culture researcher Mary McGill about the ways our synapses have been reconfigured by our interaction with the internet.
- Nora: Nuala O'Connor (Friday, April 23rd, 5.30pm) The Dubliner Nuala O'Connor is now an adopted Galwegian, and she launches her new historical novel, Nora, in the stunning grounds of Ashford Castle, in this prerecorded event in conversation with Elaine Feeney. Nora is the tale of Nora Barnacle, the most famous muse in Irish literature, and the novel traces her life from working as a maid at Finn's Hotel in Galway, where she meets and falls in love with a young James Joyce, to their extraordinary literary life together.
- Marian Keyes: Voice of a Nation (Saturday, April 24th) So you want to write, but you're afraid to make the first move on the keyboard. Marian Keyes has not only written 14 bestselling novels but also shared her insights into the writing process and helped young (and not so young) writers overcome their fear of the blank Word document. Irrepressibly witty and upbeat, Keyes will talk about her writing life and answer audience questions afterwards via YouTube's live chat.
The Visiting Hour by Frank McGuinness
Thursday, April 22nd, Friday, April 23rd, and Saturday, April 24th, 7.30pm, €15-€50, gatetheatre.ie
Some people sit by and simply watch events unfold; others get pen and paper and shape their own response to what's happening around them. Frank McGuinness has written a play set during the pandemic, addressing issues close to our hearts as we are forced apart, and performed and recorded in the Gate Theatre auditorium. Stephen Rea stars as an elderly father, with Judith Roddy as his daughter who visits him in the nursing home. The conversation takes place through the nursing-home window, as father and daughter share their very conflicting memories of the past. Beware: this is one family visit that may leave you emotionally drained. Directed by Caitriona McLaughlin, the play is part of the Gate at Home initiative to bring bespoke productions streamed from the Gate straight to your gaff.
New Music Dublin
Friday, April 23rd, until Monday, April 26th, various times, free, newmusicdublin.ie
Pandemic or no pandemic, musicians just have to get together, whether on a socially distanced stage, in a Zoom room, or just jamming outside their windows. This year's online New Music Dublin features livestreamed performances from the National Concert Hall and Smock Alley Theatre, in Dublin, along with prerecorded shows, live interviews, workshops and even Twitter listening parties. The emphasis is on women composers, and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra will set the tone on Friday with an all-female programme premiering works by Irene Buckley, Anne-Marie O'Farrell and Caroline Shaw. The Irish ensemble Evlana will perform works by Linda Buckley, Gráinne Mulvey, Amanda Feery and John McLachlan at Smock Alley. The RTÉ Concert Orchestra will perform the premiere of Natasha Paulberg's Atomic Hope. And Brian Irvine's ever-popular Totally Made-Up Orchestra will bring together diverse musicians of all ages and abilities. The festival favourites Crash Ensemble will of course be there too – try to keep them away.
Mick Fleetwood & Friends Celebrate the Music of Peter Green
Saturday, April 24th, 6pm, $14.99 and $24.99, nugs.net
This is not exactly happening live, as this concert was performed more than a year ago, but it is a chance to catch an all-star line-up of rock and pop legends coming together to celebrate the legacy of Peter Green, the late Fleetwood Mac founder and guitarist. (Taking place at the London Palladium on February 25th, 2020, the concert was due to be screened in cinemas around the world. Then Covid spoiled the party.) Mick Fleetwood has opened his Rolodex and invited loads of musical friends, including Noel Gallagher, Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour, Kirk Hammett, John Mayall, Zak Starkey, Pete Townshend, Steven Tyler and Bill Wyman. Also dropping in are current Fleetwood Mac members Christine McVie and Neil Finn, and original founder-member Jeremy Spencer. After the premiere you can watch the show over the next five days via video on demand, and ticketholders have a chance to win signed Mick Fleetwood drum kit and virtual meet-and-greet with the man himself.
SYML Live at St Mark's Cathedral
Sunday, April 25th, 7pm, $20 and $75, songkick.com
In spring 2020 the Seattle singer-songwriter SYML – real name Brian Fennell – was on tour with Dermot Kennedy. When the pandemic upended live music he retreated to his home studio, went back over some of his lyrical and musical sketches and started to fill out the musical spaces. Now, to coincide with the release of his new EP, Dim, he'll be playing a global live event from the city's St Mark's Cathedral. The EP sees Fennell dealing with themes of loss following the death of his father, but this show promises to be a soul-salving, uplifting affair, featuring fan favourites from his debut 2019 album and various EPs, including his breakthrough single, Where's My Love, and his version of Mr Sandman.
Oscar Party with Neil Patrick Harris, Elton John, David Furnish & Dua Lipa
Monday, April 26th, 7pm, €16.99, universe.com
If anyone can host an online Oscars party, it's Elton John and his partner, David Furnish. With the pandemic leaving the party calendar a bit bare over Academy Awards week, the Elton John Aids Foundation has taken on the task of wetting our whistle on the web. (It's being streamed before the Oscars highlights are on TV on Monday evening.) The actor Neil Patrick Harris is your host for the evening, and the special musical guest is Dua Lipa, whose album Future Nostalgia is the best pop record in the universe right now. Naturally, she and Elton will get together for a duet.
A Night in with Robert Webb
Thursday, April 29th, 6.30pm, £8-£15, darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk
Fancy spending an evening in with Jez from Peep Show? The comedian, actor and writer, and one half of the comedy duo Michell and Webb, promises a witty and entertaining evening, to coincide with the paperback release of his bestselling novel Come Again. It's the mindbending story of Kate, a woman devastated by the loss of her husband, who suddenly finds herself back in the 1990s as her 18-year-old self, with a chance to relive her first meeting with him and prevent his future death. But can you fall in love for the first time twice? Webb will also chat about his part-memoir, part rallying call for men to man up, How Not to Be a Boy, and his TV work with Mitchell, which includes the mighty Peep Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look and, more recently, Back.
