"I have this theory that it's the genetics," says singer Jeanette Byrne in explanation of her unashamedly Gallic repertoire, which she showcased at the weekend in Chansons De La Nuit at the Da Club, the Fringe Festival's most atmospheric venue. This very writer is quoted in the Fringe programme, making a carefully judged comment on Byrne's show with Jack L and the Black Romantics last year: "Jeanette Byrne's deep resonant French ... made me feel wild, untrammelled, free . . ." Garlanded with such praise at last year's Fringe, this year's Fringe has seen her solo.
Back to the genetics: "My grandmother came here with her mother from La Rochelle, and they worked for some lord, looking after some lady's clothes, and they ended up staying here." The French influence was strong in the family, but Jeanette admits she probably played it up in an effort to be different.
The effort paid off, and her FP, featuring chansons such as Brel's Un Ami Pleure and Ferrari/ Pallavicini /Delanoe's Une Femme (Avec Toi), is available in the shops, a surefire romantic firelighter, even in cool, damp conditions. Jeanette is working with her ex In Tua Nua music publisher brother on other recording plans, and plays Whelans on Sunday 27th.
Admittedly, the Da Club, which is the Fringe Festival Club, would make the Smurfs sound romantic; a far cry from the Black Hole of Calcutta which is the IFC Meeting Room, where on Friday night at the Nualas' gig, the audience nearly melted like a Nuala in the arms of her Spanish lover, without so much as the time to ask: "Hey Manolo, are we an item?"
They're another example of an act who owe a lot to the showcase the Fringe provided last year, as indeed are Pan Pan, who won the Best Show Award last year, and this year made the transition to the main festival. This year the Dublin Dry Gin Best Of The Fringe Award of £1,000, judged by an a band of covert judges Bill be presented at the Da Club on Saturday, but what is mere dosh compared to the honour of winning the Bedrock Sexiest Fringe Production Award, a tasteful trophy by Laurent Mellet, which, strategically placed about in the home, would surely reader romantic firelighters forever redundant?
Theatre professionals, go to market on Saturday next. The Theatre Shop takes place all day at the Coach House in Dublin Castle, and has two main components: seminars and workshops with figures from the international theatre scene, and one to one meetings between Irish theatre workers and international promoters and festival directors - among them Neil Wallace, the Scottish producer behind the Dublin Theatre Festival's biggest import, Les Danaides. You'd be a fool not to run your heifer round the ring - phone Declan Gorman on 01 6719278 and book now.
