The abandoned children and neglected spouses of Dublin will have one person to blame next month: Ali Curran. On Monday, the director of the Dublin Fringe Festival (September 25th-October 14th) launched her three-week programme which nonchalantly crams together established, emerging and experimental artists and embraces artforms from theatre to video installations, dance to comedy. Add this to an enticing Dublin Theatre Festival programme (October 2nd-14th) and all thoughts of autumnal domesticity evaporate.
The one constant on the Fringe in recent years has been Curran's interest in blurring the boundaries between genres: true to form, the visual art programme, GAIN +, curated by Mark Garry, incorporates film, animation, sculpture and remote-controlled installations in outdoor locations around the city. Small-scale, aria-free, contemporary opera has been added to the mix this year, with a double-bill of new work by composers Jurgen Simpson and Simon O'Connor. O'Connor's work, Obegon, with a libretto by playwright Simon Doyle, concerns "a woebegone existentialist" (is there any other kind?) who rejects "reality itself" - but manages to sing nevertheless, we hope.
Another innovation is a series of talks and training sessions focussing on theatre design and production. There will be master classes and post-show discussions with choreographer David Bolger and visiting British playwright Howard Barker, among others. Part of the pleasure of the Fringe is plunging into the unknown, but there are many familiar faces too. Irish companies presenting recent work include Upstate with Declan Gorman's Hades, Pan Pan with Standoffish, Island Theatre Company with Mike Finn's Pigtown, Corn Exchange with Michael West's Foley.
Brand new work includes Bickerstaffe's Rap Eire, "hip-hop odyssey through the fairytale world of Irish political culture" written and performed by Arthur Riordan and directed by Jimmy Fay; Calypso's new production of Gavin Kostick's Asylum Ball, directed by Bairbre Ni Chaoimh, Meridian's latest multi-media music theatre piece, The River, written by Johnny Hanrahan and John Browne, directed by Hanrahan.
Visiting companies to watch out for are the France-based Gare St Lazare Players with two plays by the prolific American playwright and actor, Wallace Shawn; The Wrestling School from the UK with He Stumbled, a new work by Howard Barker and New York City Players with House, directed by avant-garde doyen, Richard Maxwell.
Information, in person, from 2 Temple Bar Square; tel: 1850-374643 and www.fringefest.com.
The five nominees for this year's Perrier Prize, awarded annually to the best show on the Edinburgh Fringe, were announced yesterday. The strong favourite is US comic Rich Hall, whose show Otis Lee Crenshaw has been one of the runaway successes at this year's Fringe. The other nominees are British acts Lee Mack, Sean Lock, Dave Gorman, and Garth Marenghi. There is still some Irish interest in the award - Dublin comic David O'Doherty is in the running for the Perrier Best Newcomer award, which is presented to acts performing the first full-length show on the Fringe. Both awards will be announced at midnight on Saturday.
At the end of the last academic year, there was much speculation about who would replace Theo McNab, who retired as the National College of Art and Design's Head of Fine Art. Like most third-level institutions, the NCAD is renowned for the bureaucratic intricacies of its internal politics, something that in the past tended to cast a pall over the proceedings for students and staff alike. The painter Mick Cullen, recalling his student days there, once famously compared it to The Zone in Andrey Tarkovsky's film Stalker - a bizarre, post-apocalyptic region where normal physical laws don't apply. Now a contemporary of Cullen's, the highly regarded painter Brian Maguire, well known in his student days for his abrasive views on institutional authority, has surprised most observers by taking on the job of Head of Fine Art. A fairly dramatic example of poacher turned gamekeeper, it would seem.
Creative activity is increasingly included in rehabilitation and recovery programmes for victims of trauma and violent crime, people with addiction problems, learning disabilities or those in emotional and psychological pain. On Saturday September 9th, Artslinc will hold a one-day conference in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin to bring together specialist professionals working in the fields of art therapy, drama therapy and psychodrama as well as educators and community artists who use voice, drama, art and dance to enrich people's lives.
Artslinc is a networking organisation established last year to "build bridges between arts practitioners in Ireland and Wales, and between professionals and grass roots", according to UK drama therapist, Martin Gill, who will facilitate the conference. Further information on the event, to be held at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology is available from: Bryan Maguire, 01-2144639. Travel and accommodation information from: Sinead Moloney, tel 01-4548808.
