Monday
Jean-Michel Jarre
3Arena Dublin, 8pm, €60
ticketmaster.ie
Born in Lyon, France, 68 years ago, Jean-Michel Jarre is the man who brought electronic music to people that found Kraftwerk just a little bit too weird. There's no denying his success, then, with multi-million selling albums such as Oxygène, Équinoxe and many more. Advance reports of this show, meanwhile, border on the ecstatic.
The Nest
Lyric Theatre. Ends Oct 22 £15-£24.50
lyrictheatre.co.uk
Martha and Kurt are two expecting parents who work hard to provide for their new family, intent to provide comfort and security for their child. But when Kurt's boss offers him a chance to make some easy money in an unethical and compromising way, his decision threatens their future. Here, Conor McPherson provides a new version of Franz Xaver Kroetz's 1975 play, Das Nest, conceived as a contemporary morality tale in which Caoilfhionn Dunne and Laurence Kinlan play the couple at its conflicted centre. In a further coup for the Lyric and Young Vic co-production, directed by Ian Rickson, new music for its dark fable comes from the deliciously brooding PJ Harvey. Birds of a feather…
Tuesday
Blood and Roses – the songs of Ewan MacColl
National Concert Hall, Dublin, 8pm, €35
nch.ie
Salford-born Ewan MacColl was one of British folk's rabble and rebel rousers, and throughout his life he courted controversy as well as writing unforgettable songs such as Dirty Old Town and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. This centenary concert makes its Irish debut, and features MacColl's wife (Peggy Seeger), two of his sons , British folk royalty (Martin Carthy and his daughter, Eliza) and judicious Irish input (Declan O'Rourke).
Some thing as a line
Highlanes Gallery, Laurence St, Drogheda, Co Louth. Until November 5th
highlanes.ie
Highlanes has established itself as one of the country's premier visual arts venues and begins a 10th birthday season of shows with an exploration of the persistence of the manually produced line in contemporary art. The starting point is William Mulready's Miniature of the Artist's hand, painted on ivory, from the Drogheda Municipal Collection. Karl Burke, Anna Barribal, Maud Cotter, Gemma Fitzpatrick, Mark Garry, Caoimhe Kilfeather, Barbara Knezevic, Damien Meade, Niamh O'Malley and Kathy Prendergast are the contemporary artists. Linear specialist Brian Fay curated.
Wednesday
Anoushka Shankar
NCH, Dublin, 8pm, €20-€50
nch.ie
Daughter of the very great Ravi, and half-sister of the very famous Norah Jones, Anoushka Shankar was never going to be anything but a musician. Indian classical music is a family business and she learned to play her sitar from the great master himself. Like her father, she likes to reach beyond the Indian tradition, and her latest project, Land of Gold – a cry for solidarity with refugees and victims of war - fuses east and west, with a quartet that includes Bjork percussionist, Manu Delagu.
Thursday
East Cork Early Music Festival
Various venues, Cork city and county
eastcorkearlymusic.ie
Starting today and continuing 'till Sunday, the 14th East Cork Early Music Festival (ECEMF) has firmly established on Ireland's classical music calendar. This year, new artistic director Aoife Nic Athlaoich's programme features some of Ireland's leading specialists in Baroque, including Peter Whelan and Ensemble Marsyas, soprano Rachel Kelly, Camerata Kilkenny and the Cork-based Giordani quartet.
Michael Kiwanuka
Cyprus Avenue Cork, 8pm, €20
cyprusavenue.ie
This British soul songwriter released his second album, Love & Hate, earlier this year to immense acclaim, and so to catch one of his shows at such a small venue will surely be a treat to those that are lucky enough to have a ticket. References? Fans of Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Van Morrison and Otis Redding may want to pay attention.
Strictly Deep
The Library, Limerick 10.30pm, €8/€7/€6
facebook.com/StrictlyDeep
Strictly Deep move beyond the Pale with their first venture Shannonside kicking off tonight with Josh Butler in pole position. A DJ who made his bones with stints under the Sankeys and Tribal Sessions' banners, Butler has also proven to be a prolific producer with well-received tracks for Kerri Chandler's MadTech, Hector Couto's Roush, Green Velvet's Cajual Records and Noir Music. Support from Strictly Deep's Kaily and Liam Duffy.
Torture - Andreas Serrano
VOID, Patrick Street, Until December 17th
derryvoid.com
No stranger to controversy, artist Andreas Serrano found a disarmingly matter-of-fact way to address the monstrous subject of torture. With the guidance of a French Special Forces veteran, he engaged models and workers in the experimental art space The Foundry at Maubourquet in France to enact the mental and physical realities of torture techniques, from Nazi Germany to Stasi interrogation centres to Abu Ghraib and the "deep interrogation" methods employed in Northern Ireland.
