Monday
The Printer
Triskel Project Space, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, Until March 19
triskelartscentre.ie
Billy Field runs Field Printers, the Youghal printing house established in 1850. This documentary, by Michael Twomey and Kieran McCarthy of Complete Control Films, looks at the dying art of the handcrafted setting and printing processes. The show also includes materials from the workshop and some of the posters it's produced in the 1930s and 1940s, including the poster for a premiere of Moby Dick.
Tuesday
Educating Rita
Lyric Theatre. Ends Feb 28 7.45pm (Sat & Sun mat 2.30pm) £15-£24.50
lyrictheatre.co.uk
What more can we learn from Educating Rita? Willy Russell’s 1980 comedy has proven to be an enduring comedy about knowledge, education, class barriers and the sexes, borrowing liberally from Pygmalion, both the Greek myth and Bernard Shaw play. More recently, though, it has proven useful to refresh the play’s own syllabus. Last year, a production starring Lenny Henry received much attention for its celebrity casting, but less for how the play might shift to suit the circumstances of black Britain.
For the Lyric’s first production of 2016, the play has made another transposition, from Russell’s native Liverpool to Belfast. Here, Kerri Quinn plays the irrepressible Rita, a working-class hairdresser tired of the confines of her workaday existence who enrols in an Open University course in English literature, only to find it taught by a disillusioned and alcoholic North Down lecturer, played by Stephen Kennedy.
Education, of course, is a two-way street, where teacher and student each invigorates the other, ultimately moving both in new directions. The question is whether they like what they find there. Emma Jordan directs a play wryly aware of how education can be the making of us.
Wednesday
Róisín Murphy
Limelight Belfast 8pm £23
limelightbelfast.com
One of the Choice Music Prize nominees returns to Ireland for a pair of highly anticipated shows. Murphy’s latest album, Hairless Toys, will be strategically played with, and no doubt she will totally own the stage.
Foals
3Arena Dublin 8pm €31.40
ticketmaster.ie
Oxford band Foals – once favourites of the art-rock/ alt.rock crowd – have significantly broadened their appeal with recent albums such as Holy Fire (2013) and What Went Down (2015). The albums are strong, but it’s in a live context that Foals really kick, so beware. Special guests are Everything Everything.
Suede
Olympia, Dublin 8pm €45.05
ticketmaster.ie
You never think you miss something until it’s no longer there – that was the case with Suede when the British band split up in 2003. Since their return in 2010, however, the band have released two cracking albums – 2013’s Bloodsports, and last month’s Night Thoughts. This show sees the latter album played in its entirety, followed by a ‘Best Of’ set. The Best Glam Rock Britpop Whip-Cracking Gig of the Week, anyone?
Tommy Halferty Trio feat Seamus Blake
Dolans, Limerick; Also Thurs, Wexford; continues next week
Saxophonist Seamus Blake’s standing on the New York jazz scene may be judged by the exalted company he keeps: guitarist John Scofield, trumpeter Dave Douglas, and the Mingus Big Band all have him on speed-dial. To that list add the great Derry guitarist Tommy Halferty who is importing the grandiloquent Blake for a short tour that will give jazzers in Limerick, Wexford, Cork and Dublin a chance to hear one of the leading saxophone voices of the current generation.
Thursday
Hoolie
Electric Galway 10.30pm €5
electricgalway.com
Huxley heads west for Hoolie and sparks are sure to fly. The DJ and producer Michael Dodman has seen many scenes come and go over his tenure in the game and his deep house grooves have proven to be something with timeless appeal. Between his releases with Ethyl for Cecille and his run of solo tracks for Tsuba, Aus Music, Hypercolour and 20:20 Vision, Huxley has perfected his bass-first house sound.
Jesse Jones: No More Fun and Games
Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, Charlemont House, Parnell Sq North, Dublin. Until April 10
hughlane.ie
Pursuing the Hugh Lane’s 1916 theme of Artist as Witness, Jesse Jones promises to “transform the gallery space into a cinematic experience through sound and architectural interventions”. To which end she has commissioned a piece by film composer Gerald Busby (who scored Robert Altman’s 3 Women). She is addressing feminism in Ireland, with an eye to the gender equality or inequality in historical narratives including the Rising and the arts.
