Monday
St Joan
Lyric Theatre Until Oct 8 7.45pm (Sat & sun 2.30pm) £15-£24.50
lyrictheatre.co.uk
In a good play, everyone is right. And in an another age of fanaticism, it seems like a good idea to revisit the story of a religious zealot, steeped in conviction and guided by voices, who eventually comes up against inflexible combatants, moving inexorably towards the calamity of the stake. Here, Jimmy Fay directs Bernard Shaw's carefully balanced tragedy about the life, trial and death of Joan of Arc, a young woman acting in good faith, who is captured, accused of heresy and finally destroyed in the crush between the forces of the church and the law. Lisa Dwyer Hogg plays the complex Joan; naïve, resolute, brave and sacrificial.
Tuesday
To swallow a ball: Vanessa Donoso Lòpez
Tales from a Green Post Box: Jane Locke
The LAB, Foley St, Dublin Until November 9
dublincityartsoffice.ie/the-lab
Barcelona-born, over a decade in Dublin, Vanessa Donoso Lòpez has previously explored how cultural identity is transposed and translated through relocation. Here she considers the clay beneath our feet, the home ground that we shape and mould to make functional, symbolic and decorative objects. Jane Locke's starting point is to ask how we hardly notice that our post boxes, integral to our society, are embellished with the emblem of British royalty.
Ryan Quigley Quintet
Crane Lane, Phoenix st., 9pm, Adm free
cranelanetheatre.ie
UK trumpeter Ryan Quigley stops off in Cork with a heavyweight group in advance of a new recording for Whirlwind records in London. Most attention will inevitably focus on US drummer Clarence Penn, whose crisp grooves have graced the music of Wynton Marsallis, Dave Douglas and Maria Schnedier, but the rest of the quintet – saxophonist Paul Booth, pianist Geoffrey Keezer and bassist Michael Janisch – are no slouches either. Sparks will fly.
Wednesday
Sam Lee
Little Museum of Dublin, Dublin 7pm (wine tasting/interview); 8pm (performance) €18/€15
ergodos.ie/events
In a different life, British folk singer, folklorist and Mercury Music Award nominee Sam Lee was a wilderness survival expert, but an introduction in 2008 to Scottish folk traditions changed his life. This gig takes place in the compact setting of one of Dublin's hidden gems, and if you have a liking for authentic folk foraging, now's the perfect opportunity.
Bailegangaire
Backstage Theatre. Sep 9-10 €18/16 8pm backstage.ie;
Civic Theatre, Tallaght. Sep 14-15 8pm €16/14 civictheatre.ie
Is the Irish theatre canon contracting? It's just two years since Druid staged and toured Tom Murphy's great play from 1985, and now Nomad and Livin' Dred Theatre Company revive the same play for an Irish tour. That decision is guided by some understanding of what audiences want, and few dramas come with as much power or urgency as Bailegangaire. The senile Mommo endlessly retells, and never finishes, the story of how Bailegangaire came by its name, as a family trauma clusters around her bed in the shape of her two damaged adult daughters. (Druid, meanwhile, are opening a new drama by Meadhbh McHugh, Helen & I, about two adult daughters who return to care for their ailing father – a superficial resemblance, perhaps, but Irish drama doesn't stray too far from the well.) Here Padraic McIntyre directs Joan Sheehy as the matriarch, with Clare Monnelly and Maeve Fitzgerald as two divided daughters coming to terms with the past in order to move forward. That might be what the canon should consider.
Thursday
Clonakilty International Guitar Festival
DeBarras, Clonakilty Co Cork various times/admission prices
debarra.ie/clonguitarfest.com
Now in its 12th years, the Clonakilty International Guitar Festival has broadened its remit to embrace every style of music from folk and blues to alt.rock and hip-hop. This year's event starts tonight with Wyvern Lingo (DeBarras, €15, 9pm), and continues until September 18th with a diverse range of acts, including UK punks The Membranes, Ireland's Redneck Manifesto and Spook Guitar Orchestra, and London-based Swedish/US/UK garage rock band, The Franklys.
Music for 18 Machines
Button Factory Dublin 8pm €15
uticket.ie
2016 marks the 40th anniversary of the debut performance of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, and this event (subtitled 'A reimagining of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians') sees Irish musicians Simon Cullen (of Synth Eastwood) and Neil O'Connor (of Somadrome) "revoice" the music. As accompaniment, visual artist Anthony Murphy (Shadowlab) has created a new expressive understanding of the outlines rooted in the work.
Skene: Photographs of backstage settings by Darek Fortas
Rua Red, Belgard Square, Tallaght Until October 22
ruared.ie
Born in Silesia in Southern Poland, Darek Fortas studied photography at DIT and then London's Royal College of Art. He returned to Silesia to make his prize-winning 'Coal Story' about the coal-mining industry there. This new body of work explores the backstage apparatus in various theatres. In Greek, Skene means: "structure that supports the background in theatre as well as seeing and exposing".
