Pick of the week
The Ulster Bank Belfast International Arts Festival
Various Venues Until Oct 29 belfastinternationalartsfestival.com
Now in its second year under a new title, the Ulster Bank Belfast International Arts Festival is again in full swing. That certainly suggest a point of stability, but this year's programme recognises a world that is anything but secure. The Lyric Theatre premieres Lucy Caldwell's new play, Three Sisters, adapted from Chekhov's classic and given a whole new set of troubles in 1990s Belfast, where Orla, Marianne and Erin now dream of escaping to America. More positive signs come from last year's artist in residence Amanda Coogan, whose new live art performance is a collaboration with deaf communities and creates choreography, music and visuals from Shakespeare through sign language.
Several more performances open this weekend in an intense cluster, bringing David Greig's hotly anticipated new take on Aeschylus' The Suppliant Women to provide clear parallels between the mythical escape of 50 daughters and the global refugee crisis. From the same team that made the astonishing The Events, it also find notes of community spirit and feminist protest.
Prime Cut slip in neatly among such politics with a double bill of Stacey Gregg's probing monologue play Scorch, about gender fluidity in an inflexible world, and Sarah Gordon's wry mystery two-hander A Sinkhole in Guatemala. Meanwhile, Kabosh deliver two perspectives of the NI border, Green and Blue, about the forces that patrolled each side.
There are many more talks, events, dance, exhibitions and marauding street performers, but the festival's real coup may be in its music programme. Here the stunning New York performance artist Taylor Mac appears with an instalment of his dazzling 24-Decade History of Popular Music project, and a cabaret focusing on the first World War years and his own take on Irish history. If anyone can put such turbulent, divisive past to rest, with appropriate audacity and glitter eruptions, it's Taylor.
Friday
Barry McCormack
DC Music Club, 20 Camden Row Dublin 9pm €10
musiclee.ie
Dublin songwriter Barry McCormack has a long enough history with native his city, having documented many tales, both tall and not so, in a sequence of excellent folk albums. New album, The Tilt of the Earth, is a departure, mixing krautrock bells and art-rock whistles to his evocative lyrical narration.
Diffract
Kino Cork 9pm Adm free before 10pm/€7
facebook.com/diffractt
Diffract bring the techno and electro noise to this end of Washtington Street with a fine gathering of homegrown names. Krayb David tops the bill, the Galway-based producer who has supported Plaid and Battles and has releases for the Cut & Paste label under his belt. There's also support from Future Music's Reich Joyce, Skirmish mainstay Shiv and Hames.
Levon Vincent
Wah Wah Club Dublin 11pm €10/€8
wahwahclub.ie
Levon Vincent's debut album last year is a good place to go to find out more about the New York native and Berlin resident. A powerful blend of moody underground techno and dramatic minimalism, the album was a vivid snapshot of Vincent's skill as a producer and musician in creating distinctive work. It also shows you why his various releases for labels such as Nouvel Sound, Deconstruct and Ostgut Ton have been so enthusiastically welcomed far and wide. Support from This Greedy Pig DJs.
Monster Music Improv
Limerick, Drogheda, Navan, Roscommon, Ennis, Dublin; continues next week
improvisedmusic.ie
Music – and particularly improvisation – is increasingly recognised for the role it plays in brain development, so introducing your little monsters to complex, more abstract music is likely to make them smarter, as well as cooler. Blending music and visuals, Monster Music Improv features ground-breaking vocalist Kinsella, Dublin guitarist and pedal jockey Shane Latimer, and live cartoonist Patrick Sanders.
Saturday
Rafeef Ziadah
Liberty Hall , Dublin 4.30pm
lingofestival.com
Ziadah is a Palestinian spoken word artist and activist. Check out her We Teach Life, Sir and Shades of Anger online for a flavour of what to expect. Other highlights in the excellent poetry festival include Blindboy BoatClub's Kick Up the Arts on Sunday,with Panti Bliss and Tara Flynn, Sage Francis, Ophelia and Fifth Element (Saturday) and the Lingo Poetry Slam (Friday).
Lumo
Tengu Dublin 10pm €10/€8/€6/€5
facebook.com/lumoclub
The house party in a club celebrates a year on the go. Regulars Nialler9, Simon Roche and Adultrock's Gavin Elsted, Lump will be calling on the services of Claire Beck, new electronic act Cinema, recent Hard Working Class Heroes highlight Le Boom and Workshop Cork's Kim Keating for some additional muscle.
Dónal Lunny, Máirtín O'Connor and Zoë Conway
Town Hall Theatre 8pm €20/€18
tht.ie
This is the penultimate date on this trio's tour. Their mix of original compositions, contemporary covers (Conway's cover of Richard Thompson's Crazy Man Michael is a particular treat) and familiar tunes promise even more in a live setting.
The Smoke Clears
Wigwam Dublin 10pm €10/€8
wigwamdublin.com
When he's not making deep house cuts for Running Back and Mule Musiq, Corkman John Daly has been going into the slo-mo side of his musical psyche as The Smoke Clears. The follow-up record to 2013's debut Smoke Clears' album is full of moody setpieces and dubby twists and turns with Daly and collaborators like Cian Finn finding various sweet spots in the mix. Aside from Daly's live performance, you've also got Sonel Ali and Daire Carolan on tonight's bill.
Sunday
Modality of the Visible: A survey of the work of Michael Kane
Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, Charlemont House, Parnell Sq North, Dublin Until January 15
hughlane.ie
A stalwart of the Independent Artists, the group established as an alternative to the Irish Exhibition of Living Art with the aim of demonstrating that art could be contemporary, representational, humanist and socially engaged, Michael Kane has himself been a fiercely independent presence in Irish art for over half a century. The forceful poetry of his vision of urban life, mingling classical myth and autobiographical detail, compels attention.
No Idle Day
Various venues, Dublin Also Fri-Sat
youngheartsrunfree.ie
The Young Hearts Run Free crew's cultural festival winds up on Sunday with community games at Ringsend Park and the 150th edition of Banter, called The Sunday Game: Across the Sea. Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh will be in the hot seat, along with a screenign of Atlantic, and performances from Shrug Life, The Spook of the 13th Lock, Nialler9 and more, and food from our own Aoife McElwain. Proceeds, as always, go towards the Simon Community.
