Going out...
Let the Right One In
The Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Free preview Nov 18. Previews Nov 18-21. Opens Nov 22 – Jan 20 7.30pm, abbeytheatre.ie
It’s hard enough being Oskar, a bullied, lonely and underprivileged young teenager, but a spate of sinister killings in the neighbourhood, in which victims have been slaughtered like pigs and drained of their blood, can really cramp your style. A young girl, Eli, has moved in next door in his estate, never in school, never seen in the daylight and astonishingly impervious to the Swedish winter.
The pair soon form an inextricable bond, but the bonds of devotion to Eli come with some very significant consequences. Adapted from John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel, and its entrancing film version, Jack Thorne’s stage treatment for the National Theatre of Scotland retains the original’s uncanny poise, aided in no small part by John Tiffany’s imaginative and imagistic direction.
Now it comes to the Abbey with an all-Irish cast, featuring Craig Connolly as the struggling, kind-hearted boy and Katie Honan as his kindred spirit and protector. It’s an unusual coming of age story, as touching as it is chilling, about the things we do for love.
Saturday, November 18
Protomartyr
Whelan's, Dublin. 8pm, €16.50. whelanslive.com
Pity the rock band with the name Butt Babies. Thankfully, Detroit’s Protomartyr changed the moniker quickly enough, and so, with very few the wiser, they have continued to distinctly mark out ground that is influenced not only by their native antecedents – The Stooges, MC5 – but also late 1970s UK punk/post-punk acts such as The Fall and Joy Division.
Latest album Relatives in Descent contains songs written in the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential election, and as such simmer with a notable degree of dissatisfaction. Angry times, fractious music.
Sunday, November 19
Edel Meade
Arthur's, Dublin. 4pm, €10. arthurspub.ie
Inventive Dublin singer Edel Meade performs songs from her new album, Blue Fantasia, with a strong quartet that includes Belfast pianist Scott Flanigan and the sure-footed rhythm pairing of bassist Dave Redmond and drummer Dominic Mullan. Note the early start time.
Immerse: Print works by Gwen O’Dowd
Graphic Studio Gallery, off Cope Street, Temple Bar, Dublin. Until December 6, graphicstudiodublin.com Should they turn to printmaking, textural painters are often drawn to the gritty directness of carborundum. That's certainly true of Gwen O'Dowd, who took to the medium like a . . . well, like a duck to water. Water is key as she makes magisterial, abstracted compositions from an elemental coastline vocabulary: water, stone, space, light. This survey show marks 30 years of her printmaking in carborundum, etching and monotype.
Staying in...
We hear the word tossed around the media, but what is evil? Is it something that can actually be detected and measured by electronic equipment, or is it something supernatural, a malevolent spirit that takes over the mind and makes people commit terrible acts?
Mick Peelo is the brave soul who sets out to uncover its true nature in Evil – A Would You Believe Special (Sunday, RTÉ One, 10.35pm). He talks to Jim and Rose Callaky, whose daughter Rachel was brutally murdered by her husband Joe O'Reilly. They believe O'Reilly is truly evil, with no conscience: "When you look into his eyes there's nothing there."
Peelo talks to psychotherapist Christine Louise de Canonville, neurologist Dr Clare Kelly and psychiatrist Dr Ivor Browne, and learns evil has several faces, from the narcissist to the full-on psychopath, and many evil acts are down to bad wiring in the brain.
