EVENT OF THE WEEK
Lizzo
Monday March 13th, 3Arena, Dublin; 6.30pm; €60.50 (sold out); ticketmaster.ie
US singer, rapper and (lest we should overlook it) flautist Lizzo may seem like a recent presence in our lives (courtesy of her third studio album, Cuz I Love You, released in 2019), but she languished in the commercial doldrums for about seven years previously. From the success of Cuz I Love You, however, she has ripped up the rulebook with a sequence of hit songs and a plethora of awards. Last year’s fourth album, Special, continued her run of success and, judging by the sold-out status of this gig (and her European tour), it shows no sign of stopping. Special guest is London-born, Irish-Bangladeshi singer Joy Crookes – she’s good, so try not to miss her.
Gigs
Drawing from the Well
Sunday March 12th, NCH, Dublin; 7.30pm; €30/€25/€20; nch.ie
The umbrella title for a series of events overseen by NCH and the Irish Traditional Music Archives, the third Drawing from the Well concert features a rake of the country’s foremost traditional players. The lengthy and exemplary list includes Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Liz and Yvonne Kane (fiddles), Pádraic Keane (uilleann pipes), Catherine McEvoy (flute), Derek Hickey (accordion), Conal Ó Gráda (flute) Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh (singer), Méabh Ní Bheaglaoich (accordion, singer) and Charlie Lennon (fiddle, piano). RTÉ producer (and fiddle player) Aoife Nic Cormaic presents; there will also be set dancers and poetry (Cian Ferriter). One word: Hup!
Cultúr Club
Thursday March 16th, Festival Quarter, Collins Barracks, Dublin; 6pm; €20; stpatricksfestival.ie
As part of the St Patrick’s Festival series of events, LGBTQ+ club promoters Mother present mainstage performances by Elaine Mai (with MayKay and Sinéad White), Bobbi Arlo, Pastiche, the first-ever LGBTQ+ Géili (see what they did there?) and Dancing with the Stars hoofers Panti Bliss and Denys Samson. After all of that, Mother DJs shake it up in Tent Mór. Snakes alive!
Bicep
Friday March 17th, 3Arena, Dublin; 6.30pm; €50.90; ticketmaster.ie
Playing their biggest Irish headline show (so far), Belfast electronic music duo (and childhood friends) Andy Ferguson and Matt McBriar know it was far from it they were raised. Formed in 2009, the pair won DJ Mag’s Best British Breakthrough DJ award in 2012. Since then there has been no stopping them – and not just with their music: their 2021 global stream concert from London’s Saatchi Gallery was feted (by NME) for it being “the closest thing we’ve experienced to a proper rave throughout a year of lockdown”. Special guests are DJ Saoirse and DJ/producer DeFeKT (aka Matthew Flanagan).
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Theatre
Hangmen
Saturday March 11th-Saturday April 8th, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin; 7.30pm; €40/€35/€30; ticketmaster.ie
Set in Oldham, Greater Manchester, in the mid-1960s, Hangmen – in a nutshell – pivots around events in a tiny pub on the day the death penalty in the UK has been abolished. Oscar wins or not for The Banshees of Inisherin, there’s little doubt that the run of the Irish premiere of Martin McDonagh’s 2015 play will be stuffed from start to end. “A perfect fit for our unjust times” (New York Times) and “Writing of the highest order ... with the blackest of lines turning on a sixpence of humour” (Evening Standard) are just two of the tsunami of plaudits it received.
Welcome to Ireland – Meltdown of an Irish Tour Guide
Thursday March 16th, Civic Theatre, Tallaght; 8pm; €24/€22; civictheatre.ie
Written and performed by Jack Walsh, Welcome to Ireland ... is an exercise in trying not to go insane when all of the odds are stacked against you. By day, Jack is a tour guide selling the delights of Dublin and Ireland to a bunch of tourists eager to know where the nearest example of “craic” might be found. Work done, Jack returns to his mouldy flat from which he might soon be evicted. An all-too-truthful view of the rental/housing crisis delivered with vigorous humour. Also from Tuesday March 21st-Saturday March 25th, Project Arts Centre; projectartscentre.ie; Thursday March 30th and Friday March 31st, Axis Theatre, Ballymun; axisballymunn.ie
In conversation
Prue Leith
Saturday March 11th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin; 7pm; €33.50; ticketmaster.ie
Everyone loves The Great British Bake Off, so why not have Prue Leith, one of the hugely successful television show’s judges, take to the stage? The show it titled Nothing in Moderation, and the first half explores Leith’s years as a restaurateur, businesswoman and food assessor; the second half is a Q&A session where Leith will field questions from the audience. Advance warning: The first person who asks what fellow Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood is like will be escorted out of the venue.
Comedy
Frankie Boyle
Thursday March 16th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin; 7pm; €31.50 (sold out); ticketmaster.ie
Glasgow comedian Frankie Boyle (born to Irish parents from Crolly, Co Donegal) brings his Lap of Shame tour to Dublin for three shows (all sold out) and if he can resist the urge to tell jokes deemed (by some) to be distasteful, then the disgruntled fanbase might demand their money back. In other words, Boyle can be very funny, but people get what people want, which means if you want to be offended then you most certainly will be (but if you bought a ticket to any of these shows then it means you probably won’t be). Also Tuesday March 21st and Wednesday March 22nd, same venue.
Still running
Stephen Forbes
Until Thursday March 16th, Merchant Hotel, Belfast; adm free; themerchanthotel.com
An exhibition of work by Northern Irish artist Stephen Forbes graces the gallery space of this Belfast city centre hotel, and if you are taken by depictions of people and their customary interactions (Forbes’s work has been likened to that of LS Lowry), then make a beeline.
