La Donna Abbandonata (Spark Opera as part of #CQAF18) – arias for abandoned women by a dumped and emotional singer!

Given the outrageous and far-fetched characters they often play on stage, I half expect every opera singer – male and female – to be a diva off-stage. Today’s performance of La Donna Abbandonata by Spark Opera Company gave that notion a twist and surprised its lunchtime audience with a performance by Marielle Murphy, who threw some shade as well as withering looks from her smoky eyes around the room.

Take opera off the stage and into a recital and much of the theatre is often removed. Director Kate Guelke wove a moody story of conflict and crabbiness around the seven ‘arias for abandoned women’ injecting drama back into the production.

Emotionally charged from the beginning, Murphy’s powerful coloratura soprano voice resonated around the hard surfaces of the Ulster Scots Centre on Victoria Street. Unhappy with her ‘agent’ (Colin Carnegie) her sung words of ‘betrayal’, ‘joy deserted’ and ‘bitter tears’ took on new meaning, albeit divorced from the fullest context of their original works, but given vigour by the new setting. Having the translated lyrics in the programme helps bring the story alive.

There’s a lovely interplay between the stormy singer and the calm accompanist (Keith McAlister) who has to cover on the piano for her absences when she barricades herself into rooms or wanders off barefoot through the audience. A teasing line from I Will Survive promises something that isn’t in the programme, but her effortless rendition of Danny Boy more than makes up from her retreat from a full on Gloria Gaynor cover!

La Donna Abbandonata is a fine Belfast debut for Marielle Murphy showing off her mastery of Rachmaninov, Schubert, Mozart and Donizetti, and another great performance in the always varied Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival programme. Tickets still available for the final performance at 1.30pm on Saturday 12 May (light refreshments supplied during the interval).

Preview of some of the talks and attractions at Mount Stewart Conversations 2017

Maybe a dose of distance and diplomacy is what the NI political talks need?

Back in the days when men wore hats and women weren’t encouraged to stay in the room after dinner while the men smoked cigars and made serious conversation, country estates like Mount Stewart offered hospitality and privacy to decision makers.

There were no reporters standing at the gates waiting to go live on Facebook or update listeners on the top of the hour news bulletin. Telegram was the fastest mode of communication, and it didn’t allow people in power to broadcast their 140 character nuggets of wisdom to millions of people in an instant. The rumour mill ground slowly.

It was an age of slow diplomacy. Something that the National Trust are celebrating in their second year of hosting the Mount Stewart Conversations at their lough shore property. Sixty to ninety minute-long sessions to listen to and participate in interesting conversations. No glitzy cut-away camera angles or rushed 24 minute interviews that need to leave room for a news update, reading out three tweets and a programme trailer before the half hour is up.

On Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 October, the world class gardens and forest trails promise to burst into life with talks and performances that explore topics of global, political and social interest, including the 2018 anniversary of women and suffrage, Brexit and the Irish economy, women in politics as well as myths and legends. Some of the talks are chargeable, others free, but all require pre-booking (and the normal entrance fee to get access to the National Trust site). Dotted across the Mount Stewart property you’ll also find music and crafts and food.

SATURDAY

Women’s Suffrage 100 Years On opens the talks on Saturday at 11am with Rachel Johnson, Mary Kenny and Rosie Boycott discussing how far women have come in the nearly hundred years since women’s suffrage was won as well as how far there is still to go to achieve real equality. The session will launch the National Trust’s UK-wide programme that will run throughout the centenary year.

Later on, actor and playwright Tara Lynne O’Neill will take to the stage and take audiences back a hundred years to the moment when Belfast women stepped onto a football pitch in society-shocking shorts and boots, with a ball at their feet and a point to prove.

Alex Kazam is a magician who is fascinated by the art of persuasion. He’s offering his (free) insight into How to use Mind Control like Donald Trump! Attend if you dare to discover how the “orange-faced narcissist” (his words, not mine) used linguistic skills to defeat opponents and capture the imaginations of millions. You too could use confirmation bias to win arguments, make your points visually and embrace insults thrown at you.

Writer and broadcaster Mary Kenny will chair a panel who will discuss The Political Women of Ireland, casting their gaze from Maude Gonne and the Countess Markievicz, to Edith, Lady Londonderry and present day figures. She’ll be joined on stage by author Diane Urquhart and historian Senia Paseta.

Sarah Havlin will chair a free but ticketed debate about the rise of women’s leadership in NI with guest speakers that include Bronagh Hinds (founder of the Women’s Coalition) and Lesley Hogg (Clerk and Chief Executive of the NI Assembly).

While Ian Hislop’s conversation at 4pm about the richest period for satire in living memory (ie, now) has already sold out, at the same time in another venue singer/songwriter and moonlighting scientist Emer McGuire will be entertaining, educating and riffing about Sexy Science Sexy Science and what separates the Romeos from the Tinder turn offs.

Having closed the festival last year with a hilarious conversation with David Aaronovitch, Rachel Johnson is teaming up on a sofa for the last formal event of Saturday night programme with her husband Ivo Dawnay and Mary and Giles Wood from Googlebox. The two pairs of married columnists will discuss on why home is where the trench warfare happens in the battle of the sexes and the hellish aspects of working from home.

SUNDAY

Sunday morning kicks off with commentator Fintan O’Toole and academic Richard English discussing the potential impact of Brexit on the island of Ireland in a free session before Ellvena Graham (president of NI Chamber of Commerce and former head of the Ulster Bank) and Angela McGowan (regional director of CBI and former Danske Bank economist) debate Brexit plot a route out of the chaos that is the Irish economy.

Two professors Roy Foster and Richard English will discuss whether we are heading to a New World Order or returning to just another version of the 1930s?

The sight of Kate Adie in a flak jacket on the ten o’clock news was once the confirmation to BBC audiences that a region of the world was in conflict. Her appearance on the streets of Belfast made people nervous and her words were quickly judged by competing viewpoints. She’ll be closing this year’s Mount Stewart Conversations.

And sitting alongside all of this are free sessions on urban bee-keeping, abandoned buildings and a conversation about using music and arts to overcome conflict between Ahmad Sarmast (founder of the Afghanistan Women’s Orchestra) and Shalini Wickramasuriya (The Music Project in Sri Lanka).

While all the day passes for Saturday have been snapped up, there are still some all day tickets on sale for Sunday. Day passes are the only ticket have access to the National Trust site bundled in with the talks.

Complementing the National Trust’s own programme of talks and events are a series of ticketed but free conversations organised by the BBC, a festival within a festival. You’ll find Alister McGrath speaking about CS Lewis, Edith Hall and Geraldine McCaughrean talking about the ancient world; author Robert McCrum on life, literature and mortality; John Lloyd on journalism, politics and fake news; Cathy Rentzenbrink on grief and healing; Dan Cruickshank on buildings and architecture; and Natalie Haynes on the enduring relevance of the Classics and the ancient world.

You can still listen to and watch some of last year’s conversations from the inaugural event.

Mount Stewart Conversations are back on shores of Strangford Lough on 14 &15 October

Mount Stewart Conversations are back for a second year on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 October. As well as talks and debate, the renowned gardens and woodland trails will be alive with performers and international music.

Last year’s inaugural event brought speakers, music and food into the historic National Trust property on the eastern shore of Strangford Lough. You can still watch or listen back to many of the talks by David Aaronovitch, Anne Applebaum, John Bew, Ruth Dudley-Edwards, Rachel Johnson and Jonathan Powell.

So far this year’s programme includes satirist and editor of Private Eye, Ian Hislop in conversation with Craig Brown on Saturday afternoon.

Earlier that day a panel with Rosie Boycott, Mary Kenny and Senia Paseta will launch the National Trust’s UK-wide national programme that will focus on women and suffrage throughout the 2018 centenary year.

Diane Urquhart will join them in another conversation (free thought ticketed) to trace “The Political Women of Ireland” from Maude Gonne, the Countess Markievicz, through to Edith, Lady Londonderry to the present day.



With their private gardens and walks, country houses were used to transact a lot of political business away from big cities and parliaments. Mount Stewart has a history of holding conversations of significance. If you tour the house you can see chairs from the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic wars – at which Lord Castlereagh participated – which can be seen as laying down the blueprint of what would eventually become the European Union.

On Sunday morning the National Trust are bringing together Fintan O'Toole, Roy Foster and Ben Lowry to chew over “Brexit, Ireland and the Hard Border” before Ellvena Graham and David Gavaghan discuss the impact of Brexit on the economy on both sides of the border.

At lunchtime on Sunday, Ahmad Sarmast (founder of the Afghanistan Women’s Orchestra) will speak alongside Shalini Wickramasuriya (The Music Project in Sri Lanka) about using music and arts to overcome conflict in a free (though ticketed) session.

Not everything is serious. Attendees are promised a tongue and cheek look at “Boys Jobs, Girls jobs” with Mary and Giles Wood from Gogglebox.

The organisers promise fun and philosophy to expand younger minds with “The Garden of Thought Experiments”, as well as street art, circus skills, and a series of popular lectures on the “Suffragettes of Soccer” and “Use Mind Control like Donald Trump” for the adult-aged children. Add to that a Ukulele workshop and lots more music and creativity from Beyond Skin (the intercultural arts organisation).

Tickets for individual talks organised by the National Trust are now on sale. Except for NT members, normal admission price to the site still applies throughout the weekend. Day passes granting entry to any of the talks on a day (first come first served) are also on sale.

The BBC will shortly be making tickets available for its ‘festival within a festival’ with free talks and conversations exploring the theme of Journeys, Journalism and Books. The line-up is expected to include Jonathan Lynn (who co-wrote Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister), Dan Cruickshank, Natalie Haynes, Edith Hall and Fiona Stafford.

Details about the emerging line-up, tickets and volunteering opportunities can be found on the Mount Stewart website.

Culture Night Belfast 2016 Preview (Friday 16 September) #CNB16

This time tomorrow the Cathedral Quarter will be buzzing with families as tens of thousands of people enjoy the hundreds of free Culture Night Belfast events planned for the balmy evening.

The full programme is available on the Culture Night Belfast website, but here are eight events/locations plucked out for your delight. Culture Nights in other towns and cities across Ireland can be found on the central website.

Between 4pm and 9pm, Oxfam Ireland will be hosting Write to Refuge in Redeemer Central (101 Donegall Street). It’s an interactive exhibition highlighting the stories and plight of people forced to flee their homes by conflict and persecution. Authors like Glenn Patterson, Bethany Sawson, Shelley Tracey and Colin Dardis will share their written response to beautiful photographs of people on the move around the world (7-9pm). You can write your own reflection or make and decorate a paper boat with a message for our politicians about the refugee crisis. There’ll be a live-tweet-along screening of ET in the same venue at 4pm and a recording of the BanterFlix Podcast at 8pm.

Food-waste campaigner Pascale Robinson will be ‘Breaking Bread’ in an attempt to feed 5,000 Culture Night attendees as Donegall Street is transformed into an outdoor dining venue from 3pm onwards. The tasty communal curry will be made out of 1.5 tonnes of surplus produce from fourteen local farmers that would otherwise have been binned. Compostable plates and cutlery complete the sustainable feast. The vegetables will have been prepared at Chop and Bop events across Belfast on Thursday afternoon. Support from Friends of the Earth and Belfast Food Network along with Belfast Harbour’s continued sponsorship of CNB has enabled this large scale food sharing to be part of the programme along with other art, comedy, music and street theatre.

Amnesty’s virtual reality headsets in North Street (6-8pm) will transport you from Belfast to the devastated streets of war-torn Aleppo in Syria. Gain a new understanding and empathy by viewing these apocalyptic scenes from 360 degrees with footage and audio captured by Syrian citizen journalists.

Katie Richardson and her remarkable Open House Choir are performing with the Marching Band Ensemble on the Electric Ireland Stage in Buoy Park at 5.30pm. (They’re back singing in the Victoria Square pergola at 8pm.) The Ulster Orchestra http://culturenightbelfast.com/events/info.php?x=16&e=361 will follow at 6.30pm and the Belfast LGBT Quire at 7.30pm. And if you’re impressed with the orchestra, you can meet the instruments up close in the Ulster Orchestra Instrument Petting Zoo at 7.30pm.

The live musical accompaniment to episodes of Lily’s Driftwood Bay is always a treat: 5-6pm in the Black Box.

The music in St Anne’s Cathedral will rotate every hour. Eurovision’s Molly Sterling will be singing at 3pm, Iain Archer at 4pm and the big sound of the Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra at 8pm. And if you want something to sooth your soul away from the busyness of the streets, try Chorale Evensong at 5.30pm or the chanted Sung Compline at 9pm.

And I’ve no idea how the cast never mind an audience are going to squeeze into Keats & Chapman bookshop on North Street, but some aspects of Tinderbox’s new production What We’re Made Of (review) will be there after 5pm. Bet their new star Hen makes an appearance!

The now annual Slow Bike Race will make its unhurried way up Academy Street, starting at 6.30pm. He/She who shall be last … shall be first! And before that, the inaugural Belfast Pantomime Horse Race will take place in Royal Avenue at 6pm.

Mount Stewart Conversations: a festival fusing debate, culture & food (17+18 September)

National Trust’s Mount Stewart site is opening its doors for a weekend festival of debate, ideas, storytelling, art, music and food in September. Mount Stewart Conversations will take place on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 and its curated programme of talks and discussion, along with musical and artistic performances and a smorgasbord of fine food will focus on Europe.

The verbal line up already includes prizewinning author Anne Applebaum, commentators David Aaronovitch and Fintan O’Toole; journalist Sarah Helm; historians John Bew, Robert Gerwarth, Margaret MacMillan, Adrian Tinniswood and Diane Urquhart; chief executive of Volunteer Now Wendy Osborne; and former British government negotiator Jonathan Powell. More names will be announced over the coming weeks.

Complementing the debate and discussion with the audience will be a programme of intercultural arts (including acts from the roster of local charity Beyond Skin): local songster Iain Archer, Eurovision entrant Molly Sterling, Orchestre des Refugies et Amis, Anglo-Columbian duo Bitch 'n' Monk, dangerous harpist Ursula Burns, a Ukulele and Charango workshop, the acrobatic Lords of Strut, your chance to join in some Ugandan dance, and the Campervan of Dreams.

The festival will show off the recently restored neo-classical house and its diverse planted gardens. In July, three miles of new walking trails through the demesne were opened, the first phase in a project that should open up 20 miles of paths.

Explaining the background to the event, Jon Kerr (National Trust manager at Mount Stewart) said:

“Mount Stewart is no ordinary country estate. For hundreds of years, this has been Ireland’s secret retreat for royals, leaders of state, influencers and aristocracy. For generations this has been a powerhouse of great thinking, art, music, talks and deliberation, and this energy lives on today.

“The idea is that we will bring an eclectic range of people together for conversations on a central topic. This year we have chosen to focus on Europe, so there will certainly be plenty of topical debates. We are also keen that visitors get really involved in those conversations, so that will be central to the ethos of the weekend.

“This is a truly unique festival weekend that brings Mount Stewart’s history to life in a completely new way. We will have a huge menu of debates, stories, music and arts to select from as well as great local food and drink. On each night we will also have a headline musical performance to finish the day off in style.”

Mount Stewart Conversations runs from 11am until 9pm on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 September. Day passes (£30) and weekend passes (£50) can be booked online. There are also volunteering opportunities if you’d like to join the team helping at the event.

Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole.

Belfast Somme 100

As a non-historian, I come to understand the past fairly late in any cycle of commemoration. My school English teacher wrote a well-regarded book about the Somme and we had a signed copy at home, but I've never read it. Philip Orr is a member of the History Hub Ulster's advisory panel.

Belfast Somme 100 is their programme of events and projects - funded by Belfast City Council - marking the centenary of the battles of the Somme, exploring the place of the Somme campaign within the First World War and its place within the social and political history of Northern Ireland and pre-partition Ireland.

The Cenotaph at Belfast City Hall will be the venue for the annual wreath laying ceremony at 11am on Friday 1 July, remembering the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division and the 16th (Irish) Division who lost their lives.

Already there have been concerts, walks and talks. And between now and November, there will be exhibitions, lectures, conferences and films across north, south, east and west Belfast. Keep an eye on the website for details of the kids programme planned for Saturdays in July and August.

Saturday 2 July / HMS Caroline have a family open day with Creative Centenaries and their green screen allowing you to go back in time on board the ship / Normal admission fee applies

Monday 4 July at 6.30pm / Training Kitchener’s New Army in Ireland – What Can Archaeology Reveal? is a lecture by Heather Montgomery in Belfast Central Library / Free to register

Tuesday 5 July at 12.30pm / 1916 Walking Tour of Belfast Merchant Companies led by Nigel Henderson, starting at the front gates of Belfast City Hall and focussing on the Somme stories of the sons and daughters of some of Belfast’s most famous merchant families. / Free to register

Wednesday 6 July at 3pm / 1916 Sources Tour - join Catherine Morrow as she opens the archives of the Newspaper Library in Belfast Central Library / Free to register

Lots of partners are running events too ...

Until 18 September five zones in the Ulster Museum will feature extensive photographic and video archive material from leading heritage organisations including the Imperial War Museum, National Museums Northern Ireland, National Library of Ireland, and Public Records Office NI. Creative Centenaries - led by the Nerve Centre - have brought together diaries, graphic novels and even a drone war rug. / Free admission

Between Tuesday 5 to Saturday 16 / Frank McGuinness' play Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme will be performed in the Lyric Theatre.

Between 3 and 14 August, Féile an Phobail will host a series of talks around the Battle of the Somme anniversary.

Until 19 December, an exhibition highlighting the contribution of Orangemen at the Battle of the Somme - The Lily and the Poppy - is running in the Museum of Orange Heritage in Schomberg House.

Shakespeare's Women (CQAF) - polished and expressive, thoughtful and great fun

Shakespeare’s Women is a real treat. The two night run up in The Barracks is over (and was sold out), but you can be sure it’ll reappear on a local stage before two long.

Clare McMahon (Unhome) and Siobhan Kelly play Jules and Fi (better known to students of English literature as Juliet and Ophelia). Their situation is gradually revealed and it becomes apparent that they’re trapped together in limbo. Hanging around the waiting room of the dead with nothing to do, they talk about their lives and loves.

It’s clear that they’ve been together for some time and are familiar with each other’s stories. They rehearse key moments from their stories, lapsing back from everyday Belfast dialect to Shakespearean vernacular. Subtle accessories – scarves and shirts – transform their grey and denim afterlife uniform into the characters.

At first the mirth emerges from their dissection of Romeo and Hamlet (who “could be a little self-centred!”) before they reach back into the Collected Works and pick out other tragic couples. The audience chortle at the idea of Juliet leaning out the balcony having a sneaky fag (and thinking about Romeo, obviously).

The hour long performance (written by Clare McMahon and directed by Benjamin Gould) rips along with only an odd moment of silence punctuating the boisterous and energetic delivery of McMahon and Kelly, with their clear diction, raised eyebrows and sideways looks.

Large portions of speeches and conversations are interwoven into the two women’s voyage of discovery. The not quite 14 years old Juliet was only married a matter of days before her unfortunate end. But she’s wise beyond her years, the queen of understatement, and ventures to chasten and challenge Ophelia and the other characters they survey. So many women die at the hands quill of Shakespeare’s imagination. Can the dead take back control?

One of the joys of the piece is the slow disclosure of the characters’ state of affairs. We don’t need to know too much too quickly, so Clare has the confidence to withhold detail. The ending is explosive.

Shakespeare’s Women is a thoroughly polished and expressive performance, thoughtful and great fun. And part of a rich vein of new theatre being performed a part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival - like a Pick'n'Mix revival - in the all-black The Barracks (a newish venue up the alley way beside The Black Box).

Newry playwright Abbie Spallen awarded $150,000 literary prize

“Lifechanging” is how Abbie Spallen describes her unexpected win. “It comes completely out of the blue.”

The Windham-Campbell Prize eschews application and open submission processes and does not tease with public shortlisting. Instead, a set of experts make nominations which are whittled down by specialist juries before a nine person selection committee makes the final decision.

Some winners find the email notifying them of the award in their spam folder; others think the phone call or answering machine message is a prank.

The sizeable literary grants ($150,000 or just over £100,000) are administered by Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and annually bestowed upon nine authors who write in English – three fiction, three non-fiction and three drama – as a result of a gift from the late novelist Donald Windham in memory of his partner Sandy M Campbell.



Pumpgirl, while not her first play, launched Spallen’s career back in 2006, being performed in Edinburgh and London before transferring to New York and returning to the Lyric Theatre for its Irish première in 2008. Spallen wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation. She was awarded The Stewart Parker Trust New Playwright Bursary in 2009 and has been supported by a Major Individual Artist Award from the Arts Council Northern Ireland (who also fund venues and companies who have commissioned her work).

The playwright is currently working on a number of “huge” projects including a 25 character historical Swiftian satire, an all female country and western musical set in South Armagh for the Lyric (with Conor Mitchell) alongside plays on topics as diverse as the Irish financial crisis and pharmaceuticals used for the purposes of torture.

“They’re all coming to fruition now. There could be a glut of plays in the next couple of years!”

The award provides security that few artists ever achieve.

“It gives me the freedom to do the work that I want to do, and not to have to do a money gig, which is the most beautiful thing a writer can have … I went through a period last year where I was ill, and I did start to think we don’t get any sick pay, we don’t get any holiday pay and we don’t get any pension, and if we can’t work we don’t eat. This means I don’t live in fear of my boiler packing in and I don’t live from day to day any more. I’m not used to that yet.”

Spallen will use part of the prize to fund the production of a short film.

“I’m going to take a small amount off the top to write and direct my first short film. I’ve written a short film before, but I’m going to direct [this one] myself. I’m really excited about that … no interference from anybody and greater control over the edit. That’s a joy: nobody gets a chance to do that.”

She adds:

“I really love the idea of branching into film as well because as a canvass it allows me to be as big as I need to be because my work is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and I can play so much more on film that I can in theatre, though I’ll always love theatre and I will always work in theatre.”

While scripts for plays can be published, there’s a sense that the work finishes when the actors walk off the stage. Spallen feels that with film “you have a finished product at the end of it and it stays alive”.

She describes Tinderbox Theatre Company’s approach to producing Lally the Scut in The MAC as “brilliant”, casting twelve local actors (rather than using seven and doubling up characters). Tinderbox dramaturg Hanna Slattne says that the play “is without doubt the strongest script I received on my desk … and we at Tinderbox are very proud to have been part of her journey”.

Reviewing the play last April, I wrote:

“Abbie Spallen is like an angry prophetess shouting at us through the dialogue about much of what’s rotten in our society ... starting with the fact that the child at the centre of this drama is never named …

There are no sacred cows unwilling to be sacrificed: family, church, media and politicians all get chopped off at the knees by the playwright’s satirical pen as she amplifies the failings of society …

Lally the Scut is a complex, multi-layered play that shocks, challenges and blackly entertains. Tragedy mixed with moments of pantomime and horror. Abbie Spallen shares her dark and sinister imagination (terrorist puppets and that mincer!) and twelve capable actors drag the audience through the stinking mud of institutions and society to disturb us into addressing the rot. I can think of no good reason not to see Tinderbox NI’s production.”

Spallen hopes to stay herself and not be too affected by the award.

“I’m over the moon. It’s life changing. When they told me about the award I think I gibbered for ten minutes.”

It will have sunk in my the time she travels to Connecticut in the fall September for the award ceremony and the associated four day literary festival. After that, Spallen fancies fulfilling a long held dream of travelling across the US on the Amtrak, visiting colleagues in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

While you can read about the award in the Irish Times and the Guardian, local media seems slower to celebrate Spallen’s success. And while local politicians flood social media with commentary on boxers and sporting team results, few if any have raised a tweet or updated Facebook to toast the Newry playwright.

Going to the theatre … at a cinema: National Theatre’s "As You Like It" at Odyssey Cinemas

Multiplex cinemas are branching out beyond films. Their large screens and comfy chairs allow new audiences to experience vast theatrical and operatic productions that would never be able to travel outside capital city venues.

Last week I watched the National Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It in Odyssey Cinemas in Titanic Quarter. Hundreds of people in the London theatre were joined by thousands sitting around the UK and beyond in cinemas at the end of a live satellite feed.

The point of view is a little different from the experience in a theatre. It’s like the difference between attending a sporting event and choosing where to focus your gaze and sitting at home following the action through the lens of the TV director. Five or six cameras dotted around the theatre along with a sweeping jib vary the viewing angles. Close-ups are rare. Frequently the picture drops back to a full stage view, letting the height of the set fill the cinema screen.

While you don’t have a glossy theatre programme in your hand, a photocopied leaflet details the cast and gives you an idea about how they relate to each other. For Shakespeare with his ridiculous number of characters, that’s quite important.

Any night of the week you could walk into at least a couple of Belfast theatres and find good quality drama on stage. There’s an active theatre scene in Derry too, and many indigenous productions tour around council-owned and privately run venues outside of the main cities.

But there’s nowhere that you could expect to see a set like the one designed by Lizzie Clachan with its busy (both in terms of activity and splashes of colour) low ceilinged office environment magically transformed after the first few scenes into a dark forest of tables for the remainder of the play. It’s mesmerising and beautiful to watch.

While there were a few times I’d like to have been able to see what was happening elsewhere on the stage, on balance it was a better view (and a nicer seat) than I’d have had in the National Theatre itself. I sat in the back row of the 'gods' for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time from where I could see all the action but none of the facial expressions, so getting a little closer to the action is appreciated.

This version of As You Like It transposes the early political and family machinations to a family business. It took me a while to pick out the key characters from the enormous cast during the wordy opening scenes. An ill-balanced wresting match is surreally engineered around a scene (the head locks were unlikely to be stage directions written by the great bard) before it’s time for cat pyjamas and furry animal slippers.

Once in the forest, a cappella singing adds music to Shakespeare’s verse, a chorus suspended up in the trees tweet like birds – and wail on occasion – while clowns and shepherds add to the humour of cross-dressing, a herd of (human) sheep, and unrequited love. The stars of the show were Rosalie Craig (playing Rosalind) and Patsy Ferran (Celia) … and the Norn Iron lad who lost his accent when he began to sing.

Unlike a New York Met Opera live stream of Turandot – a more traditional performance to compare with NI Opera’s interpretation during Belfast International Arts Festival – that I caught in different Belfast cinema last month where the video was noticeably ahead of the audio (a fault of the feed rather than the cinema) the sound from the National Theatre was beautifully mixed (probably 5.1 rather than just stereo).

As You Like It was just one of a whole series of shows being screened in Odyssey Cinemas over coming weeks and months. The National Theatre’s Hangmen (written by Martin McDonagh of The Pillowman fame) is being shown on Thursday 3 March at 7pm along with Royal Opera House shows Boris Godunov (21 March), Giselle (6 April), Frankenstein (18 May) and Royal Shakespeare Company performances of Hamlet (8 June), Cymbeline (28 September) and King Lear (12 October).

18th Belfast Children's Festival (4-9 March) - Ali FitzGibbon looks back over her time at Young at Art

Belfast Children’s Festival 2016 runs from 4 to 9 March and its programme (PDF) was launched at lunchtime today.

“Going to a theatre performance, going to an exhibition, taking part in a workshop, sends people on a journey that shows them that the world can be other than as it is.”

Festival director Ali FitzGibbon explained to me that Central Station was an appropriate venue for the launch since it’s the hosting the interactive I Think I Can (via Australia’s Terrapin Puppet Company and the Ulster Model Railway Club), inviting audiences to inhabit a miniature town and become active members of its tiny community. Watch out for the diminutive antics being reported in an online newspaper during the festival. I Think I Can is free and runs for the duration of the festival (8 years +).

The festival programme brings together international artists (Swiss Vorstadt Theater’s Bambi 4-5 March/8 years + and two clown shows from Norwegian Katja Lindeburg on 8 and 9 March) as well as performances from local companies like Replay Theatre’s fantastically named Snoozle & the Lullabugs (4-6 March for under 5s with profound and multiple learning difficulties or severe learning difficulties) and Maiden Voyage Dance’s Pause & Effect (5-8 March/4-8 years).

You can hear from authors and illustrators like Marie Louise Fitzpatrick (5 March/4-7 years) and Sheena Wilkinson (6 March/11 years+), Doodle Live in the Strand (5 March/7-10 years) and check out the portable Library of Stories (5-6 March) written by children and young people.

The Office of Important Art has relocated upstairs to the first floor of Castlecourt this year (opposite Costa coffee shop) and will host local artist David Turner’s autobiographical Ordinary Extraordinary images.

And don’t miss the Baby Rave (6 March/0-4 years) or the live bands at Pre-Teenage Kicks (6 March/8-teens).

- - -



Interviewed about the development of the Belfast Children’s Festival over past years, Ali FitzGibbon acknowledged that “there have always been artists who make good work for children in Northern Ireland”.

“There have always been really passionate and really dedicated people who create projects that work with children. What the Festival does is puts [this] into a very large international scale. It’s certainly put Northern Ireland on the map over the last 18 years.”

Ali explained that they consciously “use the Festival as a showcase and platform for local artists”.

“There are many people who have been working with children in Northern Ireland for many, many years who have received opportunities to travel and to have their work internationally recognised as a result of being in the Festival.

“I think people can trip off the tongue that ‘this is an international festival’ very easily. Children learn diversity. Children learn difference. They don’t start thinking ‘that person is different from me’. We’re very interested in what happens when you introduce children to the idea that other people see the world differently because they’re in – or from – an other part of the world.”

This year sees artists from Switzerland, Norway and Australia coming to the Festival.

“Children don’t have a lot of the inhibitions that adults have. They are very open to quite abstract and complex concepts of narratives and stories and themes of human emotion. They’re instinctive audience members and instinctive artists and participants. As we grow up we tend to start to code everything and say ‘that goes in that pigeonhole’ and we come up with responses.”

While adult-orientated festivals may find it difficult to build audiences for contemporary dance, this genre sells out at the Children’s Festival.

“Families and schools now understand that dance is a really interesting way to communicate with children. Dance is an amazingly powerful art form and children respond to it and talk about it. They see signals in the performance that they can take back into their home and back into their classrooms and discuss with their parents and their teachers afterwards.”

Baby Rave is a festival stalwart, a fun-filled disco for babies and parents with non-stop music, colourful visuals, soft materials and sensory toys. Ali explained:

“Baby Rave is my baby.

“In my second festival in 2005 we could see that we have people coming to us with four and five year olds and we couldn’t find anything we could use to bring in that younger age group. I had a very young child at the time and was trying to see what as a parent would I want? I wanted something very free style, very sensory … The Baby Rave comes from that.

“What we didn’t realise when I first brought a team together to make it was that nobody had done a baby rave. Subsequently we got to travel round the world doing Baby Rave.

“We were the fastest selling act in the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2007. We sold out in thirty seconds. The youngest we’ve ever had was 5 days old … You get young couples, lots of first time parents coming along and they really engage with its dancing, its visuals, its design and its really well selected music. It’s really informal and people can come in and out in the course of an hour … That gets people with us who haven’t come across us before and they stay with us on a journey.

“The festival goes up notionally to fourteen years old. So we now have the first baby ravers beginning to get too old for the festival. My big challenge is who’s responsibility is that to take over and what provision is there for 14+ because there’s a finite limit to what one small charitable organisation can do. And what I do know as a parent … is that fourteen year olds don’t want to hang out with four year olds unless they’re getting paid!”

(Outside of the festival, Young at Art work with young people all the way up to the age of 18.)

The public subsidy of arts organisations and events is sometimes criticised whenever there is fight back against cuts to cultural funding.

“The most expensive we have in the festival this year is something like £13. There are a huge number of free events. We have Big Festival Days Out – a new programme we’re running – which is about trying to get people to see some of the great venues we have: The MAC, the Lyric, the Strand and the Duncairn Arts Centre. Most of what’s going to happen in those spaces is going to be free of charge. For the whole of the week of the festival we have exhibitions on, [for instance] David Turner’s amazing toy exhibition in Castlecourt.

“If we introduce charges every single person who took part in something for the Festival would have to pay about £30. We know that people are struggling and a lot of families are under pressure.

“We also know that there isn’t a habit of going to arts events with your children [other than panto] … These experiences are the stuff of lifetime memories. I still have ten and eleven year olds come up to me at the Festival and they talk to me about things they saw when they were three years old …”

Ali will shortly step down from Young at Art after twelve years. Her most memorable highlights included Land of Giants, a collaborative community project in the Waterworks Park (that may have dyed the duckpond in the process!), as well as the ongoing Fighting Words project.

She perceives “a tendency [in the public sector] towards short term pressures versus long term investment” adding that “nobody in the arts sector is looking for handouts … but what Young at Art is looking for is some realistic investment” that values and delivers cultural experiences.

“In Northern Ireland we are way behind where cultural provision could and should be for children. If anything there’s a spreading-the-butter-very-thin approach which says that every child will have some element of experience and there’s not enough time being spent looking at the quality and duration of the experience, what kind of support they get within the school system and the youth sector.

“As an organisation we’ve had two or three of the most challenging years we’ve had in eighteen years. And it’s a sad thing when you look at an 18 year old organisation that has been on an upward trend, that has been growing and growing [but] last year because of the in year cuts we saw our numbers roll back a bit for the first time, largely because the free events had to be cut or bringing an international show costs a certain amount of money and if we don’t have that money in the kitty and can’t offset it with ticket sales then it doesn’t come.”

As an organisation, Young at Art don’t just look for public sector funding. Ali explained that “all the education programmes are financed through private trusts and donations”. Corporate sponsors are involved too, including Translink Castlecourt, Belfast Harbour and Easons.

Ten years ago, Young at Art’s board of directors came to the decision that “survival was not good enough”.

“Keeping in business is not worthy of merit. Keeping the doors open when so many people are on the brink of closing their doors is not good enough. You have to be good. You have to be good for your audiences. You have to know what’s coming up on the horizon. You have to see how your audiences are evolving. You have to see who’s not coming and try to find ways of making sure that they come. You have to be able to articulate purpose. And if you don’t do that, then you shouldn’t be doing it.”

Warm your soul and your stomach at this year's Out To Lunch Festival (until 31 January) #otl16

It’s January and it’s cold, but fear not … The Eleventh Annual Out to Lunch Arts Festival is here to warm your soul (and your stomach if you attend a weekday lunchtime event)!

Some highlights from the programme that’s bursting with comedy, music, poetry, opera and storytelling.

You can save 50p if you book your tickets for weekday lunchtime shows in advance for £6.50. Prices of evening and weekend performances vary - check the programme. Unless stated, events are in the Black Box in Hill Street.

Tuesday 12 January at 1pm and 8pm // Lance – Kieran Hodgson’s hilarious story of belief, betrayal and redemption as he recounts how his boyhood admiration of Lance Armstrong was sullied.

Wednesday 13 January at 1pm // Novel Operas – NI Opera’s young artists perform pieces from operas based on novels. Join Gabrielle Mulcachy, Rebecca Rodgers, Laura McFall and David Lynn for a novel lunchtime performance.

Wednesday 13 January at 7.30pm // Tenx9 gives nine people ten minutes to tell a true story from their lives. Given that it’s the Out to Lunch festival, this month’s subject is food. Admission free. (And for the first time, I’ll be telling a story …)

Thursday 14 January at 1pm // Cup O’Joe – Bluegrass and Gypsy Jazz music from three local siblings who’ll have your toes tappin’ and your hands clappin’. Reuben (18) plays guitar and mandolin; Tabitha (15) is on banjo and fiddle; and Benjamin plays upright bass.

Saturday 16 January at 2pm // Strolling Through Ulysses with Robert Gogan as he takes the audience on a whistle-stop tour to highlight the funny bits in James Joyce’s enigmatic novel.

Sunday 17 January at 2pm // Join Saint Sister, Prima Quartet and Jealous of the Birds for a lazy Sunday afternoon of soulful harmonies, dreamy synth, harp, alt-folk and more.

Tuesday 19 January at 1pm and 8pm / Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck’s classic story of two drifters striving to find their place in an unforgiving world. The play (Michael Roy Andrew and Nigel Miles-Thomas) is scored by gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

Wednesday 20 January at 1pm and 8pm // Comedian Sarah Kendall with her one hour narrative about the day in October 1990 when her best friend died for 11 seconds. “It’s a story about life. It’s a story about death. It’s a story about 20 foot tall fibreglass chickens.”

Friday 22 January at 1pm // Join Roisin Ingle as she reads from some of her best Irish Times Public Displays of Emotion columns. SOLD OUT.

Sunday 24 January at 8pm // Attila The Stockbroker – high-energy and hilarious punk poet and songwriter who “grabs listeners by their conscience and accosts apathy at every verse” with his “poems that spit fire at fence-sitters”.

Tuesday 26 January at 1pm // My Name is Saoirse – an ordinary yet extraordinary 15 year old growing up in conservative Catholic Ireland.

Saturday 30 January at 2pm // An all age screening of anime epic Princess Mononoke in which the young warrior Ashitika get caught up in a struggle between forest gods and the humans who consume its resources. £4 (and includes hot chocolate).

#CNB15 Culture Night Belfast ... expanded into the afternoon and up the quays into Belfast Harbour for free craic and entertainment

The third Friday in September marks Culture Night across the island of Ireland. Culture Night’s humble beginnings were in Dublin in 2006. Since then it was expanded enormously. A free celebration of creativity, culture and the arts … and lots of craic as roads are closed and good natured crowds spill off the pavements onto the streets.

Culture Night Belfast is well established and has been joined by sister carnivals in Armagh, Derry, Downpatrick, Holywood, Limavady, Lisburn and Omagh.

The Belfast merriment has expanded a little beyond its Cathedral Quarter roots and also stretched the definition of ‘night’ with many more afternoon activities squeezing into this year’s programme.

I spent the sunny afternoon in and around Belfast Harbour’s Clarendon Dock/City Quays where thousands of office workers were treated to the sound of the BeatnDrum Samba band over Friday lunchtime. A good deal noisier than the Tall Ships!

Some curious Intel staff even gazed down from their rooftop terrace … too far away to smell the blue cheese from Foodie Folk’s burgers

QUB civil engineering students together with school children had constructed a Meccano bridge across one section of the dock and were awaiting today's confirmation from Guinness World Record officials that it is the world’s largest Meccano construction.

 
Along the short waterfront walkway that now conveniently connects City Quays with the Big Fish – it’s just a couple of minutes on foot or bike – the Psychedelic Cyclo Taxi (a three wheeled pedal power machine!) zoomed up and down and photo-bombed its way into nearly every photo I took of the street artists who were brightening up the blue hoardings around a future building site.

Away from the drums, the more mellow sound of Réalta was a real treat.

That'll be the #cnb15 afternoon Mindfulness Walk around the @BelfastHarbour going past! pic.twitter.com/GBSfnvWEpb

— Alan in Belfast (@alaninbelfast) September 18, 2015

There was even space for a mindfulness walk.

Captain Livesy and Nancy wandered about spreading their nautical magic mischief to unsuspecting kids and adults loitering around the Big Fish while Street Countdown’s consonants and vowels (complete with a Richard Whiteley shrine in Dictionary Corner) tested the vocabulary of passers-by with one eight letter word generating more tittering than normal. [Thank goodness Myleene Klass wasn’t playing.]

Across the road in Custom House Square, the Tesco Taste NI marquee had created the culinary version of the Ideal Home Exhibition with all the free samples and goodies going straight into your stomach rather than a carrier bag. More cocktail sausages than you could imagine as well as local suppliers’ breads, crisps, muesli, and startlingly coloured liquids from Maine Soft Drinks.

Further afield it was great to catch the I caught the end of Score Draw Music playing the soundtrack of an episode of locally-made Lily’s Driftwood Bay live in front of a packed audience of toddlers in the sweltering Black Box Green Room. Next door people were singing and dancing ... and I wandered around the early evening Cathedral Quarter, a DJ was playing outside Dawsons Music, 300 chairs were being set out for a drum circle, Film Hub NI had three sites showing archive film footage from Belfast, and hundreds of aspirations for Belfast in 2025 were being written down for the Message in a Bottle project.

More than 50,000 people in the city centre for a balmy afternoon and evening, with hundreds of events and artists and venues bringing the streets to life. Roll on CNB2016.

Disclaimer: Along with other bloggers, I agreed in advance to write about the Culture Night Belfast activities in and around Belfast Harbour. All opinions and photos are my own. 

The Dutiful Wife (Off The Rails): turning a lapse of judgement into something a politician's spouse must get through #cqaf15

The Dutiful Wife is a short but explosive piece of contemporary dance theatre by Off The Rails that examines whether a political spouse can hold it together in public while anxiety and unease grows inside?

Can a politician’s wife rationalise her husband’s political rhetoric about integrity, loyalty and trust with reports of his unzipped trousers?

While NI politicians aren’t always the most charismatic, there’s still a familiar feel to the glad-handing and cheap platitudes handed out by the dancers as they welcome the audience entering the theatre space in The MAC as part of the Cathedral Arts Quarter Festival. [CQAF programme preview]

listen to ‘Eileen McClory from @OfftheRailsDanz talking about her new show #TheDutifulWife @CQAF @TheMACBelfast’ on audioBoom

Two male dancers represent the campaigning politician who is “blessed with my wonderful wife” and promises voters that “the values we live by are faith, family and fortune”.

Three female dancers are at first glam and giddy as they nod along with commitment to their partner’s speeches and his references to trust and honour. There’s no escape as the cast maintain eye contact with everyone sitting around the walls of the studio.

“I married the smartest, toughest, sweetest man I know ... he’s deeply, deeply committed to his family, his God, and most importantly to you his people.”

The women’s frenetic verbal repetition of key parts of his stump speech (like the emphasise on stories of financial hardship from the early days of their relationship) contrasts with sharp physical ticks that portray a growing inner dissonance and turmoil being suppressed.

“ ... aggressively courting a 25 year old woman ...”

Suddenly-produced photographic evidence of infidelity is immediately dismissed as “just rumours” while the revealing snaps are frantically snatched out of audience members’ hands and destroyed. We watch as the political giant privately admits his “lapse in judgement” to his wife and uses the political ‘we’, abusively insisting that “we need to get through this” since “think what we could lose?”

Physically he crowds his wife, giving her little room to express anger or rejection. Advisors soon take over as the campaign machine attempts to recover from the politically damaging indiscretion:

“All you’ve got to do is stand there and smile ... you’ve done it before ... it’ll all be over before you know ... you’re a credit to the campaign ... you’re not doing it for him, you’re doing it for the children.”

At a press conference attended by a now-upstanding audience, the politician – at first with little shame – sticks to his carefully crafted excuses before journalists’ questions strip away his dignity, leaving his unravelling wife to pull herself together again and step forward to thank everyone for their attendance and support.

Dancers Paula O’Reilly, Oona Doherty and Lucia Kickham supply huge commitment, strength and energy to their roles as they collaborate to convey their duty and their internal wretching. They physically throw themselves at other members of the cast, walking up and down over each other as they ride the emotional rollercoaster.

Stevie Prickett and Stephen Clarke embody the very model of a modern major politician. They put the ‘I’ into ‘We’, physically and verbally squashing opportunities for dissent and retaking control of their wobbling personal narrative.



The clearly-delivered dialogue is taken from real political speeches and memoirs. Eileen McClory’s accessible choreography with small intimate gestures alongside big dramatic movements allows the audience to get inside the story and wrestle with the betrayal without having to wrestle with the meaning of the dance moves and their significance to the plot.

Low level lighting creates some memorable shadows while backing music amplifies the twisted emotion of the actions on the floor without becoming a distraction.

While Northern Ireland’s political class is not totally immune to sex scandals, there are sadly many other failures of leadership and integrity. A performance of The Dutiful Wife should really grace The Great Hall in Parliament Buildings as a reminder to politicians and spouses not to rely on undeserved loyalty in the advent of misadventure.

An unfunded dance company, Off The Rails are hoping that crowdfunding together with ticket sales will offset the cost of the production.

Universal themes delivered with physical and verbal oomph make The Dutiful Wife a delightful show to see. The last two performances are on Sunday 3 May at 3pm and 6pm. Catch it if you can

Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole.

Review: The 5th Province ... contemporary dance by Dylan Quinn leading to a head full of questions!

A couple of weeks ago I posted an interview with the artistic director of Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre on Slugger O’Toole. It was the blog's first ever post about contemporary dance, and also my first foray into an unknown art form.

listen to ‘Talking to @iamDylanQuinn about @DQDanceTheatre's upcoming premiere of The 5th Province ’ on audioBoom

Last night I attended the performance of The 5th Province in the MAC. It’s on again in Belfast tonight and will be in the Ardhowen Theatre in Enniskillen on Saturday 7 February. There’s also a open discussion of the piece and the concepts raised by the performance over lunch today (Saturday 31) in the MAC from 1-3pm. Contact the Box Office on (028) 9023 5053 to check if there’s space.

What is the fifth province?

It’s an old Irish mythological term based around the idea of there being five provinces in Ireland … It was a place that the kings would have come together at times of dispute or disagreement, weapons were left outside of this place and they would come in and resolved any issues of conflict that were existing between them all. The idea that when in that place you weren’t controlled by the identities and the status you had outside of it: you were there to resolve conflict.

Even as a newcomer, it’s clear that the five dancers have incredible control over their movement and balance. Slowly emerging from the earth covering the stage over five or ten minutes, five bodies became one fluid flowing life form (a little like a human lava lamp) as Andy Garbi’s string accompaniment hit frequencies that resonated with the equipment above the stage.

The upstairs stage in the MAC was covered in compost. Soon Gráinne Maher's costumes were covered too! There was a touch of An Enemy of the People about the performance when space-age mirrored snow shovels were used to shift a tonne of two of it about the stage.

Based on last night’s experience, contemporary dance is also incredibly hard work to watch. It’s not always the case, but The 5th Province has an absence of words and commentary. Dylan had explained:

If we have issues and concerns and questions and troubling about a particular subject it doesn’t mean that we all have to explore it through dialogue in a verbal sense. There are other ways of doing that dialogue, whether that be a physical sense or music.

The deliberately abstract nature of the visual narrative – never mind Tim Feehily's careful lighting to disguise the set and only reveal it in phases – raises so many questions in your head as you watch that you’re mentally exhausted trying to figure out what is happening.

You get to make up your own story. Are those bodies coming out of graves? Or was that a creation tale of the provinces of Ireland forming? What looked in the gloom like a flying bed turned out to be four pieces of fractured mirror that gave the audience distorted views of the on-stage performance.

There’s a reminder that five is an awkward number. Two pairs hugging equals one person left out. Or are they just left with a different perspective, able to look on and judge what’s happening? If people aren’t “in the club” do they seek power elsewhere? Is that what the section with the crown was about?

So many questions!

Leading, following, tripping, mirroring, greeting, creating a place of healing with baggage swept to one side, and a middle ground (more accurately a middle mound!), a power-grab and harmony.

Writing this up the morning after the performance, I’m still not sure what to make of the experience. The performers and the creative team who pulled together the show are certainly skilful.

I didn’t find it entertaining in the sense that you leave the building with a glow in your heart. While many films aren’t happy, uplifting stories, they do tend to have a start, a middle and an end, and the film-maker’s perspective is clear, sometimes to the point of becoming a challenge.

Sending 108 MLAs to see a contemporary dance performance might not instantly resolve many of Northern Ireland’s political issues. Since the concepts are drawn out of the performance by each member of the audience, they tend to be – for me at least – relatively simple observations. Maybe it works better at an individual level? Become aware of how you came to have so much baggage and know to set it down and step away. More questions.

In this year of doing new things, first ice hockey, then contemporary dance. What’s next? Opera …