"The message was very unclear," says the PR man David Constantine. What, you mean most people didn't look at the red-haired Dublin man chained to the railings of the Abbey Theatre during the festival last year, and say: "It just goes to show how the Fringe has been marginalised by mainstream theatre"?
There were those in the Abbey itself who got some message, anyway, and it was one they didn't like. It hasn't put Ginger O'Keefe, once of the Black Romantics band, off the idea of doing a stunt, but Constantine is being coy about when or what this may be.
What we do know is that Ginger will be playing tonight Thursday and Friday at the Da Club at 11.30 p.m. in An Evening of Brel, with his old cohorts, Jack L and Jeanette Byrne.
There's another chance to swing on Saturday night, when Farewell Ella, the Sheridan Trio's tribute to the First Lady of Jazz, will play again at 11 p.m. This is to make up for the show missed last Saturday night, when a supernatural force took over the venue and the event had to be cancelled. There was "an incredible energy", according to the organisers, and "Ella's phenomenal presence was felt." Only flinty sceptics would have put the black-out down to an electrical fault.
And no, it is not a band of ghosts performing SAPA in the Iveagh Market at 9 p.m., as part of the Project's season of experimental theatre and performance. I know the festival programme says it's meant to be in The Mint in Henry Place, off Henry Street, but a problem with the lease means the Project may not move into their new performance space until next month at least. The Mint is, sadly, not licensed to make money, but is an old snooker club, and the Project will perform upstairs. No doubt the snooker club sees plenty of male performance, the likes of which Elaine Sisson of NCAD could discuss in her talk, Making A Spectacle: Gender as Performance, which takes place tomorrow at 5 p.m. at the Garden of Delight cafe on Werburgh Street (opposite Burdock's), as part of the Project season.
The Theatre Shop happens at Dublin Castle tomorrow, not on Saturday, as was wrongly stated in this diary yesterday: information 01-6719278.
