You don't come across ventriloquists much these days - the art of voice flinging seems to be lost in a sea of multimedia excess. So it was an unusual twist to have a gorgeous young woman who just happens to do a spot of chit-chat with a manky monkey launch this year's Murphy's Cat Laughs comedy festival.
Nina Conti, only child of Tom, was a "straight" actress working in the RSC and elsewhere (she's recently finished a comedy drama TV series with Michelle Collins and Brendan Coyle) when British anarchic comic performer Ken Campbell sent her - and some others - a box of tricks, including a book on ventriloquism. She'd no frame of reference, not having seen ventriloquists such as Roger de Courcey and Ray Allen in her youth - "I didn't know how bad it was - in terms of the end of the pier stuff, all the reasons people don't want it any more", but she started playing around with a monkey in her bedroom, so to speak. "It didn't even occur to me to tell jokes" initially. She's deliberately clumsy about it all, and says the attraction is "what's real and what's not real" and breaking the line between them.
She was on a flying visit and will be back in Ireland for the festival over the June bank holiday. The launch, in the Metropolitan bar on Dublin's Eden Quay, had a fair smattering of Irish comedians for festival directors Lynn Cahill and Richard Cooke to unroll with this year's batch. For this, the ninth festival (cue lots of references to nine lives), many comics familiar with, and welcome to Kilkenny will grace the bill again - top notch performers from Dom Irrera to Rich Hall to Bill Bailey to Owen O'Neill to Deirdre O'Kane, plus some new faces (five Americans, two English and Irish comic Karl Spain).
But the innovations in the festival over the past few years tend to be the non-stand-up events. There's the Book Soup mini-literary section (supported by the Arts Council), which started last year, and this year includes Tony Hawkes (Round Ireland with a Fridge), Rich Hall, Harry Shearer, Melissa Bank, Ken Bruen, Sparkle Hayter and Hallgrimur Helgason. The short films section, Kitty Flicks, promises an Irish première of Wallace and Gromit in 10 new one-minute shorts, and several episodes of Give Up Yer Aul Sins. The Cat Scratchings features Irish cartoonists Tom Mathews (see Artoon right) and Graeme Keyes, as well as Pulitzer prizewinner Mike Luckovich, Jeremy Banx and Ed McLachlan, one of the best cartoonists in England.
Cooke talks about the "simple, pure form" of comedy, and of how many standups tend to diversify after a period (into writing, acting, whatever) and what he hopes to do is catch them in that window, while they're all fired up about it. It continues to be a punters' festival, and one which is enjoyable for performers rather than a business-making weekend. The gigs - always well-chosen combinations of acts - do great business, but Cooke stresses that he sees it as an artistic event. He's also proud that they manage to pay comics well - they spend €150,000 on artists' fees; the total budget for the festival is €500,000 - "in general we pay comics better than any other major festival in the world" and those fees are flat rates for given time slots, so that a big name and a newcomer are paid the same amount for the same category show.
Murphy's Cat Laughs comedy festival, Kilkenny, May 29th-June 2nd. See www.murphyscatlaughs.com or telephone the box office on 056-63837.
Global Ireland
Where have all our writers, thinkers, musicians and artists gone? To Charlotteville, West Virginia, nearly every one, for Re-Imagining Ireland next week, to debate "Irishness" with sociologists, economists, politicians and priests.
Among the 100 artists, writers, journalists and scholars taking part will be Roddy Doyle, Frankie Gavin, Seamus Egan, Andy Irvine, Joe Lee, Susan McKay, Tim Pat Coogan, Theo Dorgan, Rod Stoneman, Fintan O'Toole, Liz O'Donnell, Jean Butler, Micheal O Súilleabháin, Colm Tóibín, Roy Foster, Gerard Stembridge and Dé Dannan.
The four-day event, presented by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and funded by grants, wealthy benefactors and Ireland's Cultural Relations Committee, opens on Wednesday with a keynote address by the President, Mrs McAleese.
Re-Imagining Ireland will focus on, analyse and appreciate Irish culture in relation to America and other parts of the world, says project director Andrew Higgins Wyndham.
As well as the various speakers, there will be concerts, films and poetry readings. Singer/songwriter Tommy Sands encapsulated the thinking behind the event when he wrote about his participation: "Dreaming of better times and imagining what can be have always been an essential part of our culture, yet it is sometimes necessary to remove ourselves to another place physically, to view more objectively where we come from and where we are going."
The ambitious event will cost around $750,000, and themes include The Celtic Tiger - Cultural Implications, Home and Away and Peace in the North. See www.re-imagining-ireland.org
A piano, no strings attached
Is your child musically gifted? Due to an enormous amount of telephone inquiries, the closing date for the competition for a Kawaii Piano - a Lyric fm-Pianos Plus Award - has been extended to May 16th.
Lyric fm and Pianos Plus are seeking nominations from music teachers and parents for a deserving under-15 recipient of a new piano to help develop his/her musical potential. The winner will be announced on June 7th during this year's Pianos Plus Grand Piano Sale in the RDS at the end of the 2003 AXA Dublin Piano Competition.
They're not necessarily looking for the best player but the one with the most potential. The piano will be given on loan for three years with a possible two-year extension. Application forms must be filled in by students and music teachers and the nominee has to write in 150 words why they enjoy music and what the award would mean. All entries should be sent to Lyric fm-Pianos Plus Award, Lyric fm, Cornmarket Square, Limerick. Application forms from the same address or call to Pianos Plus, Piano House, No 9. Block H Centrepoint Business Park, Oak Road, Dublin 12.
Ballet's brave face
After having to cancel its spring season of Giselle when the Arts Council cut the company's multi-annual funding from the agreed €293,000 down to €60,000, Ballet Ireland faces an uncertain future. Added to Cork City Ballet's complete cut in funding, the outlook for classical ballet in Ireland is pretty bleak. But Ballet Ireland is starting to fight back, with a fund-raising gala at the NCH next weekend, to celebrate its achievements and role - and as part of a drive to ensure a future for Ballet Ireland.
Established in 1998, Ballet Ireland committed itself from the outset to producing classical ballet of the very highest calibre and has built a very creditable repertoire. The gala "extravaganza", which they promise will be a dancing highlight of the year, will include pieces from Don Quixote, Romeo & Juliet, Swan Lake, Irish Rhapsody and more. Shows on May 10th and 11th at 8 p.m., matinee on Sunday at 3.15 p.m. Tickets from €15 from the NCH, 01-4170000.
And furthermore . . .
The current head of broadcasting with BBC Northern Ireland, Tim Cooke, has been appointed Chief Executive of MAGNI, the National Museums and Galleries of Northern Ireland, writes Aidan Dunne. A graduate of Queen's University Belfast, he has worked for the BBC for 14 years, in London, Plymouth and in Northern Ireland, where he is responsible for commissioning and scheduling programmes. His predecessor, the energetic Michael Houlihon, who is now head of museums and galleries in Wales, oversaw the reorganisation of the constituent institutions that make up MAGNI. They include the Ulster Museum and The Folk and Transport Museum. Cooke's combined experience in senior management and communications presumably convinced the MAGNI Board, chaired by Margaret Elliott, that he was the best person for the job.
Rosscarbery Arts & Literature festival next weekend (May 9th-11th) features a recital by classical guitarist Simon Dinnigan, an art trail, and workshops. Details from 023-48063 or www.rosscarbery.ie
The eighth Bealtaine Festival began this week, celebrating creativity in older age and featuring an enormous range of impressive events all over the country through the month - from theatre, literature, dance, film, storytelling, music, painting, and sculpture. The scale is enormous, with over 500 individual events covering 25 counties, in theatres, galleries, town halls, care settings and outdoors. www.olderinireland.ie