ROOTS/GOSPEL
Rhiannon Giddens
Whelan's, Dublin, 8pm, €23, whelanslive.com
The Carolina Chocolate Drops founder made heads turn earlier this year with the release of her solo debut album, Tomorrow Is My Turn. Time to test out the beauty of that album in a live setting? Giddens (above) is up to that particular challenge, we'll safely bet.
EXPERIMENTAL
Jofridur Akadottir
Set Theatre, Kilkenny, 8.30pm, adm free, set.ie
We are big fans of all things Iceland, and so we welcome one of the rising stars of Reykjavík's music scene to Ireland. A member of two bands (Pascal Pinon and Samaris), Akadottir is solo here, as she performs tracks from her latest album, Twosomeness. Special guest is UK/Iceland band Dream Wife. And, yes, you read correctly – this is a free admission gig.
THEATRE
A Girl's Bedroom
Bank of Ireland Theatre, NUIG, every 20 minutes from 11am- 5.40pm (Thurs-Sat until 7.40pm), €5, ends Jul 26, giaf.ie
Rooms are always a trap in the theatre of Enda Walsh, home to the demented shut-ins and prisoners of Bedbound, The Walworth Farce, Penelope or Ballyturk. In his second installation work for Galway International Arts Festival, Walsh presents us with someone who actually makes it out. The six-year-old girl here, voiced in a flatline whisper by Charlie Murphy, doesn't flee an absurdist prison, but middle-class domesticity. "How is it they have grown into this half-life?" she wonders, sickened, then running away from home. Directed by Walsh, it is the opposite of a fairy-tale. The world outside, as seen by this most Beckettian of prepubescents, is stark and unforgiving. Can home be any safer?
